The life of a simple boy, Lelouch Lamperouge
by kingalfredthegreat
Summary: The greatest love stories are not found on the battlefield or any the higher ranks of society, but are found among the common folk. See the boy Lelouch Lamperouge as he lives in the world, through all his trials following his definition of love. (AU)
1. Chapter 1

' _Absolute faith can make a person blind,_

 _Absolute justice makes him merciless,_

 _Absolute perseverance might make him headstrong,_

 _But absolute love surely makes him kind, compassionate_

 _And forgiving._

 _He not only heals himself from the above faults_

 _But touches the lives of others and makes them whole._

 _After all, there will never be too much love_

 _For from it, all good and beautiful things are born.'_

It was 5th December 1999 atb. In a non-descriptive hospital, a young boy was born into the vi Britannia household. As the nurse brought the child to his mother Marianne, he was all wrapped up in a white cloth crying his lungs out.

"Congratulations, Mrs. vi Britannia, you have given birth to a healthy young boy." The nurse said in a soft warm tone.

"Thank you" was all that the relieved mother said.

As she took her little one, she rocked him gently in her arms to calm him down. It worked, as the baby felt the protective and loving aura of his mother. The little boy finally opened his eyes to look at her. What she saw were a wonderful pair of amethyst staring adoringly and questioningly at her

'Are you my mummy?' he seemed to ask.

She chuckled at the thought of him speaking so and gently tickled him. What came out was a joyous squeal from the infant. As this little game went on for a few minutes, he successfully managed to free his right arm from the tightly wound cloth. He then tried to grab his mother`s finger, which she allowed and started to still. On seeing his eyes close, she realized it was time to feed him. After all, who would want their most precious to be hungry?

As she was humming him to sleep after feeding-while he snuggled closer towards her for warmth-the door to her room opened to reveal Sayako, her Japanese maid and Jeremiah Gottwald, the butler of the house. She gestured them to keep quiet as they proceeded to her bedside. Even though they were domestic help, Marianne always made them feel like a part of the family-much to the disgust of her husband.

"His looks just like you, my lady." Sayako said as she took him in her arms. It was indeed beautiful scene to see the little raven headed boy resting peacefully. She just nodded her head with an affectionate look on her face. Gently, Sayako gave him back to his mother after a while. Jeremiah walked up to the infant, gazed at his calm demeanor and blessed him on his forehead.

"May he grow to be kind and strong man. Compassionate and loving just like his mother." He said softly.

"Thank you Jeremiah. It means a lot that you two took the time to see me." Marianne said warmly.

"Of course, why wouldn`t we come. Someone has to introduce young master into the house other than Master Charles and you." The maid said happily.

"If I may ask, my lady. Why are you here? And where is Master Charles?"

The butler asked careful to keep the venom from seeping into his tone.

Marianne sighed softly at that "He is on a business trip in France. He said to carry on our son`s baptism without him as would not be home for three months." she ignored the other question though.

The two of them felt anger for their employer for being so carefree of his family. Did he not care to see his first born child? Was money really worth over family? Despite the righteous anger coursing in their veins, they didn`t pursue the matter so as to not disturb the infant.

"Sayako, Jeremiah. Can I ask you of a favour?"

"Anything, my lady." They answered in unison.

"Would you two like to be Lelouch`s godparents?"

They were both shocked for a moment. Their mistress was bestowing them with such an honour?

"My lady, I… I think you should ask someone else." Sayako said hurriedly.

"Besides, we are lowly servants. Young master certainly deserves better. And also, why that name?" Jeremiah completed.

"I liked the sound of it. It has a certain uniqueness to it." She just regarded them warmly. "I have no one in my family that I can turn to. I do not trust my friends as they all have eyes the family fortune. You two are the only people I trust completely. So please, just say yes."

Both of them were stroke with awe and wonder at their lady`s faith in them. How could anyone refuse her?

"…Very well" Jeremiah was the first to reply "I will go and talk to the parish priest to schedule the baptism. Sayako, assist the mistress in my absence." She nodded in reply.

As he left the room, he turned around and bowed to his lady "Thank you so much, my lady. You do not know how happy it makes us." Tears started flowing as he said this.

"Hush Jeremiah. You don` t need to thank me. Now chin up, weren`t you running some errand?" she said with a giggle.

"Yes, of course. I shall return soon" wiping his tears, he made his way to the local parish.

Marianne once more looked at her child and couldn`t contain the gush of love of her heart. Gently, she kissed his forehead and handed him to Sayako to put him in his cradle.

"Welcome home, Lelouch."

* * *

It was nightfall on a certain day in the month of May 2003 atb. In the vi Britannia house. Young Lelouch had 'ticked' of his father and was slapped for it. Blood had streamed down lips and he was immediately rushed away by Sayako and his mother. He was later given dinner in his room and was tucked into bed. Lelouch-who couldn`t get sleep-felt bad for angering his father and was now standing outside his parent`s room to apologize. He however refrained from entering the room as he heard his parent`s screaming and shouting. Terrified though curious (as any child that age) he tried to listen in to what they were saying. He felt like it was all his fault.

Just as he was about to push the door open, he was lifted up from there.

"Master Lelouch, what are you doing here at this hour?" she asked him in a gentle tone.

"I was going to say sorry to daddy." He said with sadness in his eyes.

"Your father is busy, Master Lelouch. Now go to bed or he will really get mad at you." She said to sadly and carried him over to his chambers.

"Was daddy mad now with mommy because of me?" Lelouch asked as she put him to sleep.

"Sleep now. Do not worry about what those things now." She said as she tapped him to sleep. Sadness filled her at the sight of the boy. Little did he know that he was not at fault but of his father.

The next day the newspaper headlines was of Charles vi Britannia, having a business empire spanning the continents was finally deciding to marry his childhood sweet heart after falling out with his previous wife. They even did an excellent job of trying to tarnish Marianne`s name.

It was on that same day at dawn, 4-year old Lelouch and his pregnant mother were left at a bus stand to carry on with life with no one to care for them.

"Mama, where are we going?" he asked innocently, tears still filled his eyes for what happened in the house this morning.

Marianne looked down at him with a grief stricken face, though she held up her strong image for him "We will be going somewhere, dear. It is a surprise." She tried to sound cheerful.

He stayed silent for some time "Mommy, why did daddy leave us here?"

At once, her features darkened and she snapped at the boy "DON`T EVER TAKE THAT MAN`S NAME, YOU HEAR ME?"

Frightened at his mother`s outburst at him Lelouch fell down and cowered in the corner. He curled himself up like a ball and started whimpering and apologizing to his mother while crying softly. Marianne heart broke at the sight. The boy was just as traumatized as her if not more. It was not his fault for what happened. She reached out to her little one and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I`m… (Hic)…sorry….(hic)…Mo..(Hic)…." He cried on in her embrace.

"Shh… be quiet, Okay? It`s not your fault." she stroked his back in a while trying to contain her own tears. What had they done to deserve this?

"But… (Hic)…"

"Don`t worry. No matter what happens, we will see it through the end. I will never leave you alone." And he cried harder at that and she let him. Let him empty all his sadness while comforting him. When he sobbing nearly stopped, she let go of him and tried to neaten up his face.

"Now wipe your face with this hanky. Later, I will get you something special, okay?"

The boy nodded his head with a small smile gracing his face. The suffering, anger and sadness that was within her, disappeared at once on seeing that small smile. In their stead warmth, joy and…she dare say…happiness filled her, despite their situation. This handsome, innocent face was the sole reason her to live with that demon. It gave her the strength to face each day, no matter what it contained. She had initially thought of killing herself due to the months of torture, but she lived on her life to the fullest she could for the sake of her son.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when Lelouch tugged at her. When she turned her attention to him, she noticed him pointing somewhere. Looking in the direction her son was pointing, she found Jeremiah sitting in a black S-class and Sayako walking towards them.

"Sayako, what are you doing here?"

The maid just bowed before her "Jeremiah-san and I have left our job. Since, we worked the full term of our contract, we were given allowed to take something for ourselves." She said pointing towards the car. "More importantly, we have come to take our home."

"But… I will be imposing on you two."

Sayako took Marianne`s hand in her own. "You have always been kind and gracious to us. Besides…" she looked into her eyes "… we are family, aren`t we and didn`t I say 'our' home?"

Tears welled in Marianne`s eyes once again at this "No fair, you cannot use that on me…" and she leaned onto Sayako`s shoulder just for a while, to calm herself down. Lelouch not knowing what was happening, wrapped his hands around his mother`s and the maid`s legs and buried his face there.

Finally, she pulled away, a smile gracing her face. "Fine, you win."

An ecstatic Sayako let out a cry of joy and proceeded to pick up her mistress`s baggage. Marianne carried her son and sat in the back seat of the car. Lelouch insisted on seating in the front seat. As soon as the baggage was loaded, they hit the road.

"So, what happened when I was dropped off at the bus-stop?"

"Well, quite a lot, my lady." Sayako threw a knowing smile towards Jeremiah, who was entertaining Lelouch up front.

"Jerry, is there something I am not supposed to know?" She asked suspiciously.

Sayako let out a small laugh, while the person in question just sighed.

"You should give mommy an answer." Little Lelouch said with a completely serious face "Mommy said it is not good to keep people waiting." He looked quite cute too.

He spluttered at that, much to the full blown amusement of the ladies.

"I'm sorry, young master. I will make sure no to repeat it." He played along and ruffled his hair. Lelouch made a small sound of content and sunk back in his seat.

"Well, my lady. You see, are contract with our employer _technically_ got over last week. We were just happened to formally apply it today." he said with a mere shrug as if it explained everything.

"And the car? Did you steal it?"

"No. By the terms of the contract, we could ask for one thing we wanted the most. This happened to be lying in the garage, neglected compared to its other peers."

Marianne eyed him warily at that. "What is the matter, my lady?"

"I cannot believe you just said that to justify this."

"Say what you must" he shrugged "You are not moving around the city with no proper mode of transportation. You must remain discreet just in case. Public transport is too risky. Besides, when master Lelouch starts schooling, he needs to be on time for classes."

"So, you decided to get a $150,000 dollar car as my transportation? That is anything but discreet." She shrieked

"With all due, respect" He countered "You are still the one we serve and young master over there is our godchild. It is only natural we want the best. Besides, from the outside the car is discreet. It exudes 'subtle authority'."

"….you know, I appreciate all that and I think you should work in the Rolls Royce showroom. People like you would be in high demand."

"Thank you, I aim to please." He added cheekily.

Marianne let out an exasperated sigh and sunk in the seats.

As they travelled in silence, they pulled over on the outskirts in front of a medium sized two story house. It was in a cozy little neighborhood and had ample garden space in front. All in all, it was 'homey'.

"It`s beautiful, Mommy." Lelouch said with a bit of excitement and turned to the butler "Jerry-san, do you live here?"

"Indeed, master Lelouch. From now on you will live here to."

The boy`s eye sparkled with happiness at that and asked the elder to show around, much to his pleasure.

"Now Jeramiah-san will preen about like a peacock."

"Sayako, I never knew you had this sort of place in your possession."

The Japanese turned towards her and answered "Last night after I caught young master trying to eavesdrop your conversation and tucked him in bed, your lawyer was discussing about some settlement which included accommodation with Charles. On informing him, Jeremiah here, went about and snooped to find the papers. Turns out, you were to get this place, Charles off course didn`t want you to know about it."

"Lelouch heard the fight!" she exclaimed.

"Please don`t get angry with him. Young master thought Charles was angry due to something he had done. He couldn`t sleep well because of that and came over to apologize."

"That demon doesn`t deserve my son." She said venomously.

"That` true, my lady. Well after some drinks with the said lawyer, we finally got hold of the papers we came to inspect the house and make it comfortable for the two of you to live in during the night. We had planned to directly to shuttle both of you here in the morning, but due to the housework involved we were delayed. We went back, handed in are resignations, traded up with this car-much to the garage in charge`s shock- and headed out to search for the two of you. You know the rest after that."

The two of them settled into a comfortable silence as they looked around the neighborhood.

"Lelouch didn`t deserve all the pain he underwent." Marianne said sadly "All that boy ever wants is those around him to smile. He is so looking forward to see his siblings." She gently stroked her stomach where two children were currently growing up. "My poor children deserve much better than this cruelty."

"That is now the past, my lady." The maid reassured her "You have a long future ahead of you. You have wonderful kids, you have us. You never will be alone in this. Besides…" she turned to face the scene in front of her. "….young master will be an excellent elder brother."

"That he will, that he will…"

They were brought out of their reverie when the pair approached them.

"What are you waiting for, mommy? Come in" and the lithe raven headed boy pulled his mother past the gates which Jeremiah opened.

"Welcome, my lady and young master, to the house of Lamperouge" he said with flourish as both he and Sayako bowed to add to the dramatic effect.

All of Marianne`s gratitude was expressed when Lelouch hugged the legs of the butler and maid who were standing together to welcome them.

"Thank you" came the sweet, innocent and musical voice which warmed the hearts of all those who heard it.

Thus began the new life of young Lelouch Lamperouge, son of a regular working women Marianne Lamperouge (erstwhile wife of Charles vi Britannia)

Across the road, a young brunette girl saw the activity from the safe confines of the roadside foliage. Child-like anger flashed in her emerald eyes as she witnessed her favorite haunt being taken over by some outsiders. She was roughly as old as the raven head out there. May be she could be fri….

No she could not think like that. She would avenge this invasion on her…um….what was the word? ...terri …um….oity? ... Ugh! Whatever the word. So she ran along as quietly as possible so that no one could see her, to do the only thing she knew which would help her….

….she went to complain to her mother, of course! The greatest weapon ever known, which destroyed all harm that could fall on a 3 and a half year old.

 _Meanwhile, as the girl was rustling under the bush_

"Looks like a friendly neighborhood detective has come to investigate." Marianne said lightly. She was trying very hard not to laugh at the scene and also not turning to the bush.

Sayako turned around just in time to see the culprit run away. She chuckled at that "Master Lelouch will finally get to have friends. This house is sure to get lively."

"Oh Sayako, just call him Lelouch, there is no need for honorifics to be used…"

"Oka-sannnn….." came the distressed cry in the Kururugi household.

The mother who was currently preparing for supper came rushing out from the kitchen to see if her daughter was hurt.

"What is it Suzaku? Are you hurt or something?" she asked worriedly.

"No Oka-san, something even badder has come." The girl said with a serious face.

Letting out a breath she was holding, she sat on the dining chairs- not bothering to correct her daughter- and listened to the great tale of distress.

"So you see, you have got to shoo them to go away." She ended with complete seriousness.

The elder women laughed at it and ruffled her daughters short curls

"Suzaku, you must not say such thing to someone who has come to live there. Who knows, they may still allow you to play there if you are a good girl." She said lightly.

"But there is a scary looking boy there!"

"Hmm. Tell me about him." She said, amusement evident in her voice.

"He has black hair, looks very thin and looks like a ghost." She said to describe the 'monster'.

She just hummed at that and stood up "Tell you what, wash your hands and dust of your clothes. After I finish making food for my angel, we will go down and see into this little discovery of yours.

Suzaku smiled triumphantly at that. They would all be scared and leave her playground alone, for her mommy was going to see them.

An hour later, a grumpy Suzaku was standing outside the Lamperouge house with her mother, who had brought a tray of various Japanese delicacies as well as some of her famed cookies with her. When she protested by throwing a tantrum, her mother scolded her by telling her to be nice to them. Worse, she was even giving them her favorite cookies! That was it, if her mother wouldn`t chase them away she would scare them out herself.

As soon as the door was opened, Suzaku jumped in and started hissing and tried to claw everything around her. The adults were taken by surprise, with the elder Kururugi glaring at her. Marianne however merely giggled at that.

"My, you are a bundle of energy." She ruffled the tresses affectionately. Suzaku, one loved attention, smiled contently. Only to realize what she was doing and put a cute pouty face.

"Sorry about my daughter`s behavior. My name`s Rin Kururugi. We live next door. You all have been working hard all day, so I thought I could relieve you from your work with this." She held the tray and it was accepted graciously.

"Thank you so much, dear. My name is Marianne Lamperouge. But why are we talking here in the porch, please do come in."

She held the door open for them to enter and called for Sayako to tidy up the living room. There were boxes everywhere, Suzaku noted. Maybe she could play with them if she asked. After all, that auntie who let them in seemed quite nice to.

"Please forgive me of the mess in the house." So gestured to sit the in the only free couch while she sat in a chair.

"There`s nothing to apologize. You have just moved in. it is only natural for it to be in this state."

"Well, true enough. Thanks to Sayako here and Jeremiah who is working upstairs, it is so much less of a hassle." She smiled at that and then her attention was diverted to a fidgety little girl.

"Hello, you did not tell me who you are." She addressed gently.

"My...um…my name is Suzaku Kururugi." She was too nervous to talk any more.

"So this was the little detective who was spying on us, um?" Marianne teased. The girl in question`s face became red with embarrassment and buried it in her mother`s lap.

"Hmm… she is quite a curious cat. She even described a 'scary little boy' with you." Rin played along.

"Oka-san!" She screeched in full blush.

Marianne giggled at the thought of her son being scary. "My boy isn`t that scary. Would you like to meet him?"

She just nodded. She wanted to meet this boy and investigate what he was.

On hearing his mother call, Lelouch came running down the staircase nearly tumbling at the base making the ladies laugh a bit at his antics.

"You called me mommy?" he asked in all seriousness, too cute.

"Lelouch, where are your manners? Didn`t you see we have some guest?"

The little boy scanned the room and his eyes widened when he saw two unfamiliar people in the room. Being the foolish boy he was, he went up to them

"Nice meeting you auntie, my names Lelouch vi…" he caught himself before he went further "…Lelouch Lamperouge."

"Aren`t you going to so hello, to the little girl over there?"

He gulped at his mother`s suggestion and nodded nervously. Truthfully, he never had mingled with children his age, hence he didn`t know what to do. But he had to obey his mommy for he was a good boy! Sheepishly, he turned towards the girl and held out his hand.

"Hello, nice meeting yo-"

He was cut off when she swatted away his hand and started poking at him. His eyes, nose and ears, no facial feature was left…unpoked. Lelouch felt he was getting somewhere until he felt a sharp pain in his stomach. The little girl had kicked him in the stomach. The kick was quite hard, but nothing compared to his mother`s thrashing. Still, he fell onto the ground shocked at what happened.

"Suzaku! You bad girl, why did you do that?" Rin snapped only to find her weeping in her lap muttering

"I don't like him." And she continued to cry harder.

"Lelouch, go upstairs and help Uncle Jeremiah around." She said in a gentle voice, helping him up.

He quietly nodded and apologized for what he did.

"You have done nothing wrong, dear. I apologize for my Suzaku. Take some cookies and run along." Rin said regretfully. Lelouch brightened just a tiny weeny bit at that, thanked her and disappeared inside.

Suzaku currently was still filling an ocean with her tears, Marianne gestured Rin to take her to the front porch and calm her down. The two ladies spent the next 15 minutes to calm her down and were currently taking a breather as Suzaku slept over Rin`s shoulder.

"I'm so sorry of what happened just now. Suzaku hasn`t got any friends and hence may not know how to interact with children her age."

"it`s okay. Don`t feel bad about. My Lelouch is the same case. Only he didn`t have as dramatic a reaction as this little one." She smiled and stroked the sleeping little girl`s head.

"Back then, your son stumbled while introducing himself…." Rin said with a hint of suspicion.

Marianne just sighed "Let`s take her indoors at put her on the couch, I might as well tell you what happened."

Marianne then opened up to her. She told of how she was forced to marry Charles, how he had multiple affairs, everything. Rin was a sensible person and not the gossip type. She also seemed trustworthy, which Marianne valued above most things.

"That`s quite ….tragic. How will you take care of yourself in this condition?" Rin asked, quite shaken on knowing the truth.

She smiled at the others show of concern "Don`t worry, Sayako and Jeremiah insist to help in anything possible. Besides…" she gently rubbed her stomach "…I am due in October. There is still time for that. " then she looked cheekily at the other one "I also had a bank account created and deposited… quite a bit of money. It will keep us afloat for now."

"You know" Rin said clasping her hand "If you have any trouble, we are only a phone call away. I think I can even look after little Lelouch if you need to go for appointments."

"Thank you. You don`t how much that means to me."

"Not a problem" Rin looked at the clock "Well, I better get going. Suzaku`s father will be home soon."

Marianne saw them to gate and waved them goodbye. Truly, maybe life would be easier with all these wonderful people around her.

Suzaku couldn`t stand humiliation. She had sneaked out again to play. Though her adventures were limited to three house blocks, she was now the target of bullying by this bunch of girls of around 6-7 years from another locality. She tried to punch and bite to get away from them, but to no avail. Just when they were about to pull her hair once again, a loud frantic barking could be heard from around the corner. It was becoming louder and louder prompting the frightened kids to abandon their amusement. Suzaku curled herself ready to be attacked by the bad dog, only to hear barking stop and heavy panting. When she dare look up, she saw the raven haired boy whom she beat up a week ago, standing there, looking very tired holding a tape recorder.

"Are…are you okay?" he asked between his breaths.

"Yeah" she said with a small voice.

She felt a small hand try and inspect her "No." He said with a frown "You got a boo-boo on your legs."

Putting his puny arms under her knees and other around her back, (too much TV!) he tried to lift her up bridal style…..

…..only to fail miserably.

"Can you walk?" he asked hesitantly.

Suzaku just nodded at that, as she was helped up by the raven headed boy. She put her around his shoulders so as to gain support and started limping towards his house. The entire journey 6 minutes was spent in silence. On seeing the kids at the front gate, Sayako quickly left her chores, hoisted Suzaku up and took her inside. She placed her on the sofa carefully and went to bring the first aid kit.

When they were alone, Suzaku found to courage to speak "how?"

Understanding what she meant "I was playing in the garden when I heard some sound." He said in his sing song voice "When I invesiti-um… invest… a… went to see, I saw you. You needed help, so…um…I help."

"The word you were searching was 'investigate' and the sentence was 'I wanted to help you', Lelouch." Sayako said as she entered with the kit and started tending her wounds.

"Um… thank you, Auntie." The boy said, clearly embarrassed at his mistake.

When the wound was cleaned and the dressing done, Sayako patted her and told her that she would inform her mother. Suzaku felt afraid of what her mother would do. Maybe scold her or beat her…?

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she saw Lelouch giving her a candy bar. "Take it." He said though not looking at her.

She accepted it and played with it for some time. This boy whom she had beaten had helped her. Clearly, she felt bad for what she did to him. So she looked towards him and tried to think of a way to make up with him.

"Can you be my friend?" she blurted out suddenly.

The boy was clearly taken aback at this. After a moment or two he replied "I don`t have any friends." He said sadly and turned his face away. As if it were a reason not to befriend him.

Since he was seated quite close to her, she tugged at his sleeve and looked at him in the eye "I want to be your friend." She said with a charming grin.

The boy- who looked happy yet somehow bit hesitant- nodded his head "You did not tell me your name."

"My name is Suzaku Kururugi." She still had that smile on her face.

"My name is Lelouch Lamperouge. Pleaswd to meet you." A small smile crept on his face.

And thus started a friendship that did indeed, stand the test of time.

It was the 25th of October 2003, Lelouch was spending the last 2 days in the Kururugi household, which was practically a second home to him as his was to Suzaku. Over the course of the 4 months, they had become virtually inseparable with each having sleepovers nearly twice a week. They loved Lelouch for being the 'ideal' child as Genbu Kururugi said as Marianne loved Suzaku for being 'a bundle of joy and happiness.' Besides, both kids were not a hassle together and were always stuck in their own world.

This time however, he was staying because his mother was admitted in the hospital. When he worriedly asked what the matter was, Sayako smiled at him and said it was a surprise. Not that it reduced any worries.

"Lelouch, eat up your soup or it will get cold." Rin said, seeing him stare at his soup while paddling his spoon in it. Suzaku though small, knew her best friend was in distress. She too couldn`t finish her bowl.

Rin sighed and pulled the boy in a light hug. Lelouch leaned towards her, seeking more comfort. "Auntie, when can I see mommy?" he asked

"Soon, dear. Mommy wasn`t feeling well, so she went to see the doctor. Also, she will bring something special for you because you have been a good boy."

"Really?" he asked, eyes twinkling with hope.

"Yes, now eat up your soup or mommy will be angry for not eating properly."

"And then, we can go to my room and play." Suzaku beamed brightly. She wanted him to make him happy again. Lelouch nodded his head and the 2 resumed eating. Soon, it became 'who could finish the bowl the fastest' competition.

"Okay you two, don`t choke on your food." Rin shouted from her station.

A collective 'hai' was heard, followed by a round of giggles. She was going to sit down on the sofa after, to take a break, when the phone rang. It was from her husband. After she kept it down, she quickly made way the where the kids were having a 'spoon fight'.

"Quickly come with me you two, we are going to the hospital." She said excitedly.

"What happened, Oka-san?" asked a confused Suzaku which was mirrored by Lelouch.

She turned around, smile widening and said "Lelouch`s mommy want`s you both to come to see the surprise."

They both were chatting away in the back seat as to what the surprise could be "maybe it`s toy!" Suzaku suddenly exclaimed. Lelouch just bunched his eyebrows into his thinking position "mommy wouldn`t do that. She got me one last week." Then his face lit up "maybe it is a swe-pishi-al one."

"You mean 'special' Lelouch." Genbu corrected with an amused voice. Said boy blushed lightly much to Suzaku delight as she laughed at the sight. From there on it became a game of 'who knew the most words.' Which had everyone, even the stoic Genbu laughing.

When they entered Marianne`s room, the two were greeted with a gurgling like sound coming from the bed. When they approached closer, Lelouch`s mother showed him who she was carrying in her arms

"Say hello to your baby sister, Lelouch." She said quietly. The two of them looked in awe at the baby in his mother arms.

"You also have a baby brother too!" she said to brake him out of his little bubble. At that, Sayako came over to show the other infant. They both has same light brown colored hair and maybe same colored eyes too! He thought excitedly. Anyone who saw him now would say Christmas came early for him.

"They're so pretty!" Suzaku exclaimed.

Lelouch put out his arms towards his mother. Knowing what he meant she patted him on the head "Not now, you can carry them when they are a bit bigger." His face fell a bit but not for long. As the maids took the other baby in her hands after putting the boy in the cradle- who was getting a lot of attention from a certain 4 year old- she wrapped her arms around the eldest son, and enquired about how her little one was doing at his friend`s house. Ever the obedient boy, he gave a full report to her filled with wonder and mystique. She laughed along with him as he recounted some of their funny adventures 'in the tunnels of Suzaku`s room.'

"Are you happy, Lelouch?" She asked finally

The normally reserved boy beamed a full happy smile towards his mother, which he never did. "Very much mommy! Thank you so much for this surprise!"

Jeremiah came up to them and lifted the boy up-which filled the room with laughter- "Congratulations, Lelouch. You are now a big brother!"

Joyous laughter rang out the room despite the babies crying due to the noise. It would seem the Lamperouge family along with the Kururugi`s were finally complete.

* * *

Four years past from that day. Lelouch and Suzaku were in the same elementary school as they both had insisted on it. Lelouch proved to be among top students in academics and praised for his intelligence and behavior, but was little above average in physical education. Suzaku was the opposite. Since she started attending a dojo to learn self-defense due to constant bullying, she was outstanding in sports and also praised for her sportsmanship. Sometimes, Lelouch was at the receiving end of her strength. She however was slightly below average in academics which Lelouch tried to improve by 'helping' her. Rolo and Nunnally, the twins were now in pre-school and were considered as all-rounders in the making.

Marianne visited Rin in somewhere in the month of February, after dropping the kids to school and the pre-school (Despite Jerry insisting he drop them all, but…). This was unusual as she was working the general manager at a local bank. (…was relegated to chauffeuring the manager)

"Marianne this is a surprise. Do you want something to eat?" Something was wrong, her normally bubbly self was not there.

"No, it`s alright I came to tell you something." she said a bit sadly.

"Okay, come in. I will at least bring you tea." Rin insisted clearly worried at her change in behavior.

When there were comfortable on the sofa and had taken their cups, the conversation started. Mid-way, a tea cup fell down and Rin`s face showed the horror.

"It can`t be true." She whispered.

"It is. I met the doctor yesterday after a long overdue check-up, and he said I have somehow reached the intermediate stage. There is hardly any time left."

"How long?" Rin asked softly

"2 years max." and she broke down into quiet sobs. Rin came to her side and comforted her the best she could.

"Rin, could you do me a favor?" Marianne asked after she calmed down.

"Anything for you. Just ask" she tried to sound positive but was failing badly.

"When the time comes, just look out for my kids."

"Don`t say such things." She reprimanded her despite the tears to welling in their eyes.

That afternoon, Rin and Genbu were called over to the Lamperouge house to discuss the matter along with Lelouch`s godparents. The kids were yet to return from school. After a heated and passionate discussion which left Genbu quite distressed, it was decided not to tell the kids anything. Sayako and Jeremiah will be their chief guardians. If anything happened to them, the Kururugi`s would take them under their wing. Still, they would provide any help needed to the children.

For some reason in the 3rd grade, Suzaku started avoiding Lelouch in campus as well as when they were alone at home. Rin tried asking what the matter was, but the stubborn girl just wouldn`t talk. Fed up, her father decided she would open up when the time was ripe. On the other side, Lelouch was getting a dressing down every day for doing something to displease Suzaku. Though, he wondered what the actual reason.

They had reached school, with Suzaku giving the twins her usual good bye kiss on their foreheads and ran off. Lelouch just signed and dropped them to their class and proceeded to his. At least, she still doted over Rolo and Nunnally so it wasn`t his fault per se.

"Hey, Lelouch!" came a cheery voice which ended with an arm slung on his shoulders.

"Gino, you should stop that. I will one day topple down with your weight."

"To bad, then I will be the one to pick you up." He grinned.

That grin painfully reminded him of Suzaku. How he wished things were back to normal.

"louch?... Lelouch!" Gino screamed, startling him from his thoughts

"What?" he snapped.

"I was asking if you did your homework. You don`t have to be mad at me." Gino frowned.

"Sorry, I was just thinking of about what surprise mom put in my lunch box."

"I presume it will be a nasty surprise" Gino prodded on. The blonde was known for his carefree and optimistic attitude, sometimes could be insightful like and old grandmother. Anyway, Lelouch shrugged him off and entered class. He proceeded to take his place next to Suzaku`s, who happened to disappear until it was class time for the past week. He sighed at that as he greeted his Rivalz, Shirley and Kallen.

Classes continued as usual, but Suzaku was avoiding all forms of contact towards Lelouch. He even tried to joke about how weak he was (swallowing his pride to see her at least smile) during a free period, which didn`t earn the desired results. He was so frustrated at this

That does it! Lelouch Lamperouge would get to the bottom of the mystery of the Grumpy Suzaku!

When the bell rang for interval and she was out at lightning speed. Lelouch just sighed at that and told his friends he wouldn`t be eating with them. He ignored their groans and went to hunt for his dear friend.

After 15 minutes of searching, he found her sitting alone behind the shed which stored the lawn machine and stuff.

"There you are Suzaku" he said cheerfully as he sat on the ground next to her.

"Lelouch what do you want?" she said with little fright and anger in her voice, as she scooted away.

"Geez… can`t I eat my tiffin with my best friend. Mommy made some sandwiches, you can have some if you want" he offered still being cheerful. Inside he was worried at this behavior.

When she didn`t take it "Your loss, it was your favorite one too." He hoped that was enough to tempt her and started digging in with one eye on her.

She couldn`t bear it

'She always sticks on that Lamperouge.'

The sneers directed towards her

'maybe she thinks she`s his girlfriend'

'She trying to stick with darling Lamperouge to gain his attention'

This was the reason she didn`t have many friends and she didn`t want him to be dragged into it. Though they both pets among their teachers, Lelouch was placed on a high throne while she was given a cold shoulder…

…since she was an 'outsider'

Lelouch tried valiantly to defend her. He even nearly beat up a guy despite his poor strength. He always stood by her, which made the rumors more hateful towards her.

All this manifested as anger towards him. Why was he trying to act friendly? Didn`t he hear of the things they said? She dearly loved his twin siblings but could no longer bear being close to him. They were even planning on hurting him! The best thing would be avoid him, even if it hurt.

She quickly got up from her, dusted her skirts and walked away briskly.

"Suzaku" the shout came from behind.

She ignored him

"Suzaku!" it became louder.

Finally she felt two thin arms clamping her arms in place and preventing her from walking any further. Lelouch, knowing his poor strength knew this way he could hold her down much longer and try and get her to talk.

"Lelouch, let me go." she said in a low voice.

"Not until you tell me what I did to make you behave like this. I want to still be friends with you!" he screamed.

"Let me go." she said a little harsher. It hurt her to speak to him like this. But…

"Never, you said we would be friends forever."

That made a fuse blow in her head. She needed to release her frustration and she found her target.

Lelouch

She roughly broke away from him, kneed him in the stomach punched in the same place and slapped him. Hard. The next moment, Lelouch fell on the ground to his side, hands cradling his stomach and rosy rivers flowing from his lips. He was not completely flat, but damage was done.

It took her only a millisecond later for Suzaku to realize what she did to him. She was such an idiot. She had meant to keep him away from harm and she was the one to inflict it on him. He looked horrible, completely unlike his prince charming image he held in. Slowly, she crouched on the ground

"Lelouch…" her voice was trembling as she reached tried to reach out and repair the damage…

All she got was a pair of eyes, smoldering with anger and a low baritone.

"Leave me alone." Came the low command. But it had been inflicted.

She flinched at how cold it was and recoiled back.

"But…" she was interrupted as picked himself up and started to walk away. Too shocked at what to do, she just stood there, with streams freely flowing down.

Lelouch stopped at some distance and turned his face slightly. "I will go see the nurse to fix up my wounds." His voice was sad "You can eat those sandwiches. They were specially made for you and you haven`t eaten anything." Finally he turned to meet her gaze "I'm sorry." It was filled with regret and if possible, even more sadness and he limped away.

All Suzaku could do was cry out her heart as she ate the snack he had brought for her. Despite everything, he stilled cared for her and she acted like what he used to call her, an idiot.

That did it, she would try and mend the friendship she had broken. As she resolutely made way to class, her heart sank at the sight.

He was not there

Gino told her, he left for home due to the injuries he got from falling down the staircase.

Suzaku went home and buried her face her face in her mother`s stomach and cried.

"Suzaku, now what happened dear?" she asked as she put the magazine she was reading away.

Through her sobs, she told her mother everything. All the mean things that happened in school and she did to Lelouch today.

"Now, he may not want to be my friend." She sniffed.

"Suzaku, do you see this ring" she said gently as the girl`s attention shifted the said object sitting proudly on her mother`s finger.

"It is the wedding ring that your father gave me. What do you think about it?"

She continued while removing the ring the ring for her daughter`s closer inspection.

The ring was indeed a beauty. It was of pure gold and had a beautiful rose bloom on it. Overall it was simple yet elegant.

"It is very pretty, Oka-san." She said and handed it back.

As she took it back, Rin placed the ring such that the bloom was on the top.

"Did you know, that the ring had a diamond nestled in that flower bloom?"

She stared open mouthed as to why her mother was telling her this.

"Where did you lose it?"

Rin chuckled at that "Just some time before you were born, but that`s not the point." She faced her directly and said "Friendships are like this ring, Suzaku. They have 2 parts, those whom you have grown up with and the new friends. The new friends are the diamond. When they come, you all get excited and bubbly, just like how the diamond shines in the light. We of course still don`t know their real character. It can be fake or real just like a diamond. We however tend to forget about the gold holding it up. Old friendships are the gold on which new ones are built. The ring is still there if the diamond gets lost, but it is lost forever if you lose the gold even if you have a diamond. Do you understand?"

Through her watery eyes, she nodded and hugged her mother for showing her a mistake.

"Now, now. Just a small talk makes you cry even more. No wonder Lelouch calls you an emotional idiot."

"Oka-san!"

They were now at Lelouch`s door with Suzaku fidgeting like she was to give a speech. The door opened and revealed a rather annoyed Marianne whose face did a 180 degree on seeing her guest.

"Come in sweetie pie, I was actually going to come over to your place, but no matter."

As they made themselves comfortable in the couch as some snacks were served. The typical Suzaku would have started grazing on it by now, but not today.

"What happened to my little energy pack, aren`t you feeling well?" she asked worriedly and placed her hand on her forehead.

"Um… no auntie, I actually wanted to meet Lelouch." She squirmed at the attention she got.

A vain marred the lady`s calm face "Is that so? One moment, I will just call him down." She walked to the staircase of the house and….

"LELOUCH LAMPEROUGE! IF YOU DON`T WISH TO FACE THE CONSEQUENCES AND SEE YOUR SIBLINGS ONCE AGAIN, COME DOWN THIS INSTANT!"

…the house literally shook in its foundations, scaring Suzaku. Rin swore there was an earthquake around the neighborhood.

Said raven head shot down the stairs like a bullet and was before his mother in the blink of an eye despite his bandages. Currently he was talking something to fast for any to understand. Marianne rubbed her temples and gestured him to stop.

"Don`t tell me that, tell that to Suzaku." She pointed towards the said girl.

He whipped his head in the direction indicated and ran towards the girl who did the same. They were at the centre of the room where they both met and bowed their heads together.

"I`m sorry for what I did to you. I acted like a complete idiot today. Please still be my friend." They said in unison.

They looked up at each other and blinked. Lelouch was the first to break the silence.

"Um…."

"….why are you apologizing?" Suzaku completed.

"Rin care to tell me what happened?" asked a thoroughly confused Marianne.

"You won`t believe if I told you…." Taking a cup of tea, she started the tale of two cities having a boy and a girl. It was dramatically narrated to say at least.

"So, some girls are trying to act mean towards my angel?" Marianne said with a dark aura surrounding her. Suzaku sweat dropped.

"Yeah and my foolish daughter beat up my frail darling thinking it would fix everything." Lelouch had to struggle out of the tighter- than-usual-bear hug. Seeing him go purple, she reluctantly let go.

"Once again, I am sorry for what I did to you today and how I acted." She said once again bowing in front of the raven. As soon as she said that the same pair of arms that caught her that morning pulled her into a hug. Earlier, it was shaky and scared, now they just felt….warm. she also noticed her blouse getting wet with a certain someone`s tears.

"Thank you for still being my friend. Promise me you won`t do something like that." Lelouch said as he pulled away and gave his trademark smile of happiness. Suzaku took his little finger and crossed it with hers

"I promise." And she gave her thousand watt grin.

When they were done they suddenly heard some funny noises, looking towards the couch they found their mothers crying into their handkerchiefs.

"Our children have grown up so fast, Rin" Marianne wailed.

"I know. It was like only yesterday they would come to us for everything. Now look, they are already pledging to each other like married couples." Rin cried into her friend`s shoulder.

"Mother!" came the unified scream of embarrassment.

"Suzaku, let`s go." Lelouch pulled her in to play with Nunnally and Rolo. (and save themselves from further teasing).

As they walked towards their destination, Lelouch turned around suddenly.

"Suzaku, who were those girls who were picking on you."

"There was some boys who said pretty mean things to you also."

"Forget them" he shrugged "are you going to spill the beans?"

"Are you going to threaten them?" She frowned.

"Oh why would I do that? You know that I`m so weak that I couldn`t harm a fly!" He stated in an eerie tone that was a mismatch to that charming smile. She had a bad feeling on what Lelouch was planning.

Let it be noted that Lelouch`s tongue could turn could turn garbage into diamonds and cut the same diamonds into subatomic divisions with ease. Couple that up with Gino being a sweet talking wrestler.

The next day, as Suzaku entered she noticed all the girls in the class along with half the boys who teased her, where kneeling on the ground begging for her forgiveness and mercy. When she recovered from her shock, she noticed and extremely smug Lelouch and Gino- their clothes were bit out of place- waving at her from the back of the class. She smiled and joined up with them.

The same scene repeated at break time. The group was not as big as the morning one, but they were all begging forgiveness and mercy from Lelouch. Behind a certain brunette was seen 'accidently' stepping on them as she made her way to sit next to her best friend.

It was Lelouch`s birthday today. Since the party was over, Suzaku was supposed to sleep over much to the delight of the twins. As they raced to help their mother,  
Lelouch was allowed to take his gifts to his room and open them. Then he had to see who sent it to him and thank them the next day. He didn`t like to do it but he was told to 'Be thankful for every little gift you get.'

"There, now that does It." the 10 year old Lelouch exclaimed, putting the last gift in his room. He turned towards Suzaku who was helping him in his task

"Do you want to sleep? I can unwrap them tomorrow." They always shared the bed since they became friends.

She just shook her head "No, today is your day. I can wait." She then went up to him and smacked him on the head.

"Oww. What was that for?"

"For being weak, thus making me do most of the lifting and for going to use me to arrange your gifts like a robot." She smiled. He had a terrific system of arranging his toys.

"The last I checked, we had only one exercise nut in the house whom I can tolerate." He smirked which ended up into a wrestling match. Within 3 minutes it was over, with Suzaku pinning down Lelouch.

"I win." She said triumphantly.

"Because I let you win" he pouted.

That earned him an assault of tickles "okay… Ha-ha… you… ha….won …..ha-ha….stop it." He gasped in between his attacks.

"Shhh! be quiet you two. It is 10 o`clock." Came the voice from the doorway.

There was the usual 'yes' followed by the customary round of giggles. No matter how many times they did it, neither parent got fed-up with it.

Lelouch had finished opening his gifts and had catalogued them in his cupboard in specific spots. "that`s that. Come let`s go to bed, I`m beat." He said, stifling a yawn.

"Hey, that`s not fair! You did not open my gift." Suzaku cried from her spot in the bed. When she changed, he had no idea.

"Wasn`t your gift that gold embossed pen?" he asked in mild confusion.

"Well….um ….yeah. but that was daddy`s gift. I and Oka-san got you an extra special one, so here it is." She beamed as she hadn`t over said gift.

Lelouch didn't` t have the heart to point out the correct the mistake in the sentence. But once unwrapped, he was left speechless in a good way.

"You… you…"

She put her hand on his shoulder "You always told me you wanted a knightmare. I told Oka-san how you ranted about wanting one. So she decided to buy this along with Oba-san`s 'big boy' gift."

"And it is my favorite one, The Shinkiro!" he said and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Being close for so long that such things were normal among the two. Right now he was inspecting it, forgetting he needed to go to bed.

"You know, I was going to ask Santa Claus to get it for me." He put it down carefully on the table and flopped in bed next to her.

"That means I`m your Santa Claus then." Suzaku squealed in complete delight.

Lelouch couldn`t help but agree. He would wait to give her the Lancelot Albion -he bought from his pocket money, saving for 10 months- in the morning though ( he planned to give her on Christmas) and see if the roles were mutual.

Meanwhile, Marianne collapsed in her room after seeing all the kids to sleep. Sayako and Jeremiah had come to her aid and to persuade her to visit the doctor for another Check-up. Despite her many excuses they finally convinced her to do it for the children.

* * *

The condition worsened from there on. She had passed in the middle of the hall until she was found by an utterly terrified Rolo around the month of March, 2010 atb. She was then rushed to the hospital for what was to be her last checkup.

Marianne Lamperouge had entered the final stage of lung cancer. Her lungs were about to give way and she was to be in hospital till the end of her days. The treatments could not cure the ailment and would only ease her as she approached the fated day.

When all the elders (Sayako, Jeremiah, Rin and Genbu) divided themselves to tell Rolo and Nunnally first. Since they were young and could be pacified somehow. Finally after much crying, they (sadly) came too terms that their mommy will be an angel and look after them from heaven. They were told for now to keep her happy by being good children.

The biggest challenge was…. who would break the news to Lelouch? Of all the siblings, he was the one who was most attached to mother. They decided all of them would do it together to control the boy from doing anything hasty. Suzaku would look after the twins while they did damage control.

First there was laughter of denial, telling them it was a joke. This was followed by realization and accusing all of them for not taking proper care of his mother. Finally, the stage they were all frightened of self-blame set in. It was heart wrenching the now delirious boy listing out possible reasons of annoying his mother. Now frantically wanting to make amends, he got up and ran around to find his mother. Close behind was the frantic crowd of adults trying to catch him and calm him down. Fear of loss however, gave the boy enhanced abilities to dodge, punch and run away from his captors. Finally he banged open the door to the twins bedroom.

"Rolo, Nunnally have you seen where mommy is?" he all but shouted at them.

The little group flinched at that. He looked like a total mess. Hair in all directions, bruises marring his handsome face, clothes torn and tattered in the confusion and the crazed look in his eyes. It hurt Suzaku to see him like this. She was still grieving from the news of her beloved auntie no longer being there. Right now however, she was scared at what Lelouch could do.

"Mommy is in hospital, big brother. Soon she will be an angel and look after us." Nunnally tried to soothe him.

"No…No…NO…ALL ARE LIES. YOU ALL ARE LYING." He kept screaming to the top of his lungs as he put his hands to cover his ears and move in any direction.

"Lelouch…calm down… look…" Suzaku tried to calm him down by trying to catch him from behind as he had done to her. Alas, as I said fear of loss and enhanced his senses, resulting in him to resort to violence. No sooner he was caught, he lifted her of the ground and started ramming her into wall. It lasted only once, as he gave an almighty ram, she loosened her grip within that instant and fell to the ground. The twins were petrified and ran towards their fallen 'big sister'

"Lelouch…." He heard his mother`s soothing voice.

"Mommy?" he said silently and urgently trying to search for her. He then saw her standing below the window.

"Come down, honey. Don`t worry, I will catch you."

Lelouch smiled at that and opened the window. Stupid everyone. His mommy was fine and wa-

The next moment, he was yanked back to reality and slapped hard on the face.

"Get a grip on yourself, master Lelouch. Don`t you see what you are doing?" Jeremiah grieve stricken face came into his view. All of a sudden, everything came crashing down. He saw the damage he had done, the injuries sustained by his dear friend, the worried look on all the adults and the fright of his siblings.

It was too much for the 10 year old who sustained so much since a baby. Time seemed to stop as he sobbed out into Jeremiah`s shoulder and he felt comforted when he snuggled closer towards Suzaku and clutched onto her hands as he fell asleep in the 'safe' confines of his second home.

Two months passed and Lelouch became the pillar behind which all the younger ones stood. He visited his mother daily with all the siblings and insisted to stay the night through. he made it his personal mission to take care of her and keep her happy. Under Sayako`s guidance, he even started cooking simple dishes for her to eat and not remain hungry. Marianne ate all the things her little angel made for her even if it were tad inedible.

He was alone talking to his mother one day telling what happened in school, of how he was had finally topped his entire division, of Suzaku winning the sports events she took part in. She listened intently it all this when she suddenly told him to sit next to her.

He crawled up to his mother and clutched unto her hand like a lifeline.

"Lelouch" she said in a gentle voice "can you promise me something?"

"Anything mommy!"

She ruffled her hand in his ebony hair. He was indeed a handsome boy. Maybe a line of girl`s would be there just to go out with him in high school, she mused.

"Promise me to look after your siblings…" she then rubbed his back as a sob racked through his body as he tried to control his tears "…Do whatever you love with passion, just follow your heart, don`t stop making friends…" she lifted up his chin so she could look once more in those beautiful eyes that held love for nearly everyone "….and forgive and forget. No matter what the other person has done to hurt you, forgive and forget, okay?"

He buried his face into his mother`s and cried for what would be the last time he would be with his mommy.

"I will miss you, mommy!" he whispered.

"I will always be there, just look into the sky from where I shall shine down on you as the brightest star." She said quoting a scene from their favorite movie. The duo remained like this for a long time and before long had fallen asleep.

The next day, Marianne Lamperouge was declared dead. She had died peacefully in sleep with her son next to her. The funeral was held jointly by the Lamperouge`s and the Kururugi`s an only those close to her attended it as well as some of Lelouch`s classmates. Rin and Genbu jointly gave the eulogy to someone who was family to them. The twins and Suzaku huddled round a surprisingly strong Lelouch, who held his nerves in this times of crisis. As his siblings cried, he remained the pillar of strength for to them to lean.

They reached at around 8.00pm. Nunnally and Rolo had cried themselves to sleep and were carried into their room, Jeremiah would be keeping an eye on them. Sayako who was currently in charge to look after Lelouch. As she helped him change, she beaconed to him

"Lelouch, do you wish to talk about anything?"

He just looked at his feet "Auntie, I feel helpless." He started "I don`t know what to do. Mommy told me to look after Nunnally and Rolo, told me to follow my heart. But… I just do not know what to do." He was now clutching the bed sheets.

It eased when he felt a gentle touch "You don`t have to face your trouble alone. You have us, Auntie Rin, Uncle Genbu and Suzaku. All of us will be there to help you." Then she looked at him kindly "For now though, you may let it all out. In Japan they say "a strong person is not one who doesn`t cry, but a person who knows when to cry."

He sniffled a bit hugged her around her waist "Thank you, but I think I cried enough for now." He said much to her surprise.

"Could you help me sleep? I still feel like I want mommy." He pleaded.

She tucked him in bed and gently patted him to sleep, feeling proud that her charge was growing up despite all the trials which seemed to wash over them.

* * *

If the previous trials were waves, what came next was a Tsunami. Charles zi (changed from vi) Britannia came to the Lamperouge house the following week, citing it as a condolence visit. All the kids were huddled to the Kururugi house while the Rin and Genbu came to assist the caretakers. As expected, the richest man in Britannia did not come alone, for his reasons were never straight-forward. He was accompanied by Bismarck Waldstein, the best lawyer the country had to offer, Dorathea Ernst personal financial advisor and Schnitzel el Britannia- a son who was kept secret until Charles divorced Marianne- vice president to the Great Britannia group of companies. They had come to take custody of the vi Britannia siblings much to other`s horror. Documents were thrown back and forth, accusations filled the air and finally a little talk on 'rewards' was offered along with a 'bundle' as a sample. The bundle was promptly burned as an act of defiance. It was finally decided, the case of custody would be taken to court. As a parting short, they produced forged papers freezing the account Marianne left for her children. This effectively meant that they had nothing to live off from.

In these tense times, Lelouch- aware of the situation- kept answering national level scholarship examinations and Olympiads along with Suzaku, who would come along as a 'good luck' charm, so to speak. The results would mostly be regional topper and the highest he got was entering top 5000 with in the national level with a rank of 2586. This along with some money lent from Genbu gave them around $35,000 in three months. Jeremiah new found job`s salary was entirely getting used up in the court cases.

The attempts to get the siblings were not always clear cut. Once, a school peon caught attempting to take the twins by using Chloroform. This was prevented when the high school PE teacher-who happened to pass by at that moment- knocked the perpetrator out of his senses and revived them. From there on, they were always escorted to and from their class by a screaming big brother who even didn`t allow teachers enter the class for the rest of that day. The next target was Lelouch. He nearly missed being run over by a wayward car that happened to break the school gate and aimed at him twice before hitting a light post. Both times he was saved by Suzaku, who pushed him out of the way and then carried out of harm's way. The driver was pronounced dead on the spot.

Clearly they were not safe in the neighborhood anymore. Drastic measures had to be taken. The solution was to have them as far away as possible from the mayhem and keep their going away hushed.

It was decided to enroll the Ashford academy. It was among the premier institutions in the state renowned for its inter-disciplinary training. More importantly, it had 24 hours security service directly supervised by the government. Also, the headmaster was a personal friend of Marianne. On hearing what was going on from both Genbu and Jeremiah, he agreed to board the children in the campus together in the clubhouse and not in separate dormitories. They would be allowed a full time maid owing to their age. This would only happen for the next academic year, which they reluctantly agreed to.

The beginning of the next academic year was a bittersweet one, for all the adults wanted to keep the kids close with them. But, circumstances demanded otherwise and also their kids were growing up. Sayako was allowed to stay with them on campus due to her qualifications as a maid. Heartfelt goodbyes were said to each other. Soon, the black S-class glided down the road ignorant to the silent tears shed by everyone and hastened in its duty to drop its passengers safely to their new home till they were 18 years old.

As the years went by, a new absolute theorem in laws of the universe was established and _proved!_ In Ashford. If anyone so much as look at the Lamperouge twins in the wrong way or even accidently hurt them a typhoon would hit the entire campus and specifically the culprits in the form of two demonic individuals whose name are already known. They would be lucky to see the next day.

Likewise, since the students were still the racist kind, there was a postulate doing rounds also. If anyone spoke against the presence of a certain Japanese brunette, mysterious phenomena were known to happen to them. Symptoms varied depression to extreme case self-deprecation to even bizarre torture methods which the subject never forget. A common factor in all these phenomena was an ominous shadow was seen along furious pair of amethyst eyes.

It was their first year in middle school of the academy and it was sport week. Chaos reigned supreme as the juniors tried to get their things in order and ready. Trying to bring order in this was a Lelouch Lamperouge, class representative of the first years class 1-A and house commander of their 'gold' house- which valued intellect and sport. He was sorting through various events, assigning specific task and following up on them.

"Lelouch, can you get is the football team ready yet?"

"They left for play around 10 minutes ago, can you check the sports room?" he said with a gracious smile.

"Lamperouge, are the drinks out yet?" yelled their PE teacher.

"On pitch, sir. I have assigned 10 students to help in its distribution since our house are volunteers today."

Said teacher gave out a smile as he was about to leave "I say, you may be hopeless on the field but you know how to organize event like you planned it way ahead. Keep out the good Work!"

Lelouch thanked and flopped on a chair as soon as said man turned his back.

"Looks like someone caught the short end of the stick." Came a cheery voice.

On opening his eyes, he saw Suzaku-deputy commander of 'gold house' -standing there with a bottle of cool water in her hand.

Lelouch took it graciously and gulped it down inn one go.

"And he is as thirsty as a camel too." She continued

He just gave her a small glare "Well, try working your way with 70 mules and you get the picture."

Suzaku merely chuckled at and swiped him on the head. "That`s for equating me to a mule."

"Oh! How could I equate thee to a lowly mule? Thou art the fairest steed to ever grace this land." he smirked when she blushed a bit.

Coming back to business "Anyway, could you keep track of all the on field events and see the respective teams are there for their events? I will be doing much of the back scene work." He held out a list.

"Hmm… depends, will you come see the 200m sprint?" she asked innocently.

Lelouch just rolled his eyes "When have I ever missed your races, idiot? Now hurry up and get moving." They both got up from their places and were about to leave.

"Aren`t you going to wish me luck?" she smiled already knowing the reply of the retreating figure.

He just flicked his hand "I need to wish the other congrats on getting 2nd place."

"Lamperouge, over here!" gestured one of his classmates as he entered the track. He had just finished his responsibilities and handed them over to a supervising teacher so as to enjoy the day.

"Thank you, is the 200m sprint starting now or later?"

"Their warming up right now." He pointed to where the athletes were.

Lelouch excused himself and went to said location. There he noticed a slightly disappointed brunette.

"Oi, is the competition so bad that you are wondering if it is worth your time?" he said quietly so only the person intended to hear it heard. Suzaku perked up from and jogged towards her friend.

"You came." She grinned her signature thousand watt smile. He had to cover his face.

"Of course idiot, now stop smiling like that. Why wouldn`t I come, so that you wouldn`t get you customary chocolate bar." He teased.

She just glared at him. When she was about to say something…

"Isn`t that the 'prince of equality'? Sneered one of the female athletes.

"Hmm… doesn`t have good taste and neither a good constitution, does he? I think my one punch could keep him in bed for a month" Said the other.

Lelouch just shrugged them of and was going to wish Suzaku of when he noticed something. A blazing aura surrounded the said brunette.

"Suzaku, just… go easy on them, okay?"

"Don`t worry, Lelouch." She said in a bubbly tone to him while still maintaining that aura. How does one do that? God help their poor souls.

Needless to say, a new legend was born of the 'fire princess'. One who would burn and smoke out all of her opponents with the slightest mercy, if anyone dare cross

paths with a certain raven head.

"Seriously, a 4 second victory margin?" Lelouch said as he gave her the chocolate to calm down in the locker.

"So? They insulted you Lelouch!" he had to turn away a bit "they called you all sort of mean things. I can`t stand there while you did your best for me in elementary school. May be I should have punched them…"

"Suzaku…" he sighed midway through her rant.

"Lelouch!" the PE teacher`s voice was heard in the doorway.

"Yes sir?" the two respectfully jogged up to him.

"A representative of your 1st years gold house has withdrawn from the chess tournament. Get your act quickly! I will stall them for 10 minutes."

"Understood sir, you can actually give my name for the event." Lelouch said calmly.

"Are you sure?" he asked skeptically.

"Definitely, I have a general grasp of the game." He said simply.

"All right, get yourself ready and head to the auditorium."

"Hey, I you sure you can hold out against all those other opponents?" Suzaku asked worriedly "3 national champions are among them."

"Don`t worry, that`s makes it all the more exciting. I like a good challenge" he smiled as they entered the venue. He turned around to directly face the other, 'bro' fisted with each other "Wish me luck" and he went into the arena. Suzaku made her way into the front row of a crowded hall.

Lelouch breezed through all his opponents. Each of his game lasted 45 minutes or less. Suzaku was captivated as to how he could predict the opponent`s moves and how they all fell waste in front of his intelligence. She was pretty intrigued in his first few moves which put his king on to the board. She may not know much, but she knew it was not normal judging from the reactions in the room. His toughest game was the semi-final, against one of the national champions as it moved back and forth. After 30 excruciating minutes he emerged victorious. His opponent, known for his mannerism congratulated him heartily on his victory. With this, Lelouch Lamperouge, the dark horse was in the final.

He had a word with the coach, who was ecstatic of his performance and then made his way to where Suzaku was.

"I knew you were good but not that good."

He just shrugged it off "it`s pretty logical actually, an idiot like you wouldn`t understand." He smirked.

"Oi, don`t get cocky or else I will not allow you to see Rolo and Nunnally." She scowled darkly in response to the insult. Earning a same reply in kind.

"My, is this little the girlfriend of my opponent?" came a smooth voice from behind. It was the current national champion, known for mind games and dirty play.

"Oh was I interrupting something? If it isn`t the 'fire princess' herself. I must say, you must be an exception to those inferior Japs." He laughed as he ran his hand in his hair "any way, I will never lose to a Jap-sick lover kid." And he walked away.

Suzaku shrugged it off and was going to wish him luck when she paled at the sight. The entire room`s temperature had hit below freezing point. On Lelouch`s face was that wicked smile that promised eternal torment. She sweat-dropped at the sight. Even the opponent paled a bit.

"Lelouch, take it easy, okay?" she had to save that guy, even if he had insulted her.

"With pleasure" he said with all the warmth directed towards her and went to meet his adversary.

If the today the masses were afraid of 'fire princess' Suzaku, they were downright quaking and running away from the 'ice prince' Lelouch. He was literally toying with him. The game was over in 10 minutes.

"And the winner is-"

"I refuse, I wasn`t ready okay? He took me by surprise' the boy protested.

The crowd booed and Suzaku was about to jump over and punch him until she froze again at the icy voice.

"Very well, I will play you 3 more times." He said with an even more wicked smile. Seriously, since when did her Lelouch become this…. this….

…frightening and cold hearted?

She thanked her lucky stars he never was like this to her and vowed to keep him in check. Otherwise, Ashford academy would turn into a graveyard.

The second match was over in 9 minutes.

The third, 6minutes.

The fourth, 7 moves (1min 30 sec)

The opponent was shattered and scarred for the rest of his existence here. Lelouch, on the other hand brightly hopped to the podium, praised all his previous opponents,  
insulted his last one.

'I don`t understand why a certain insect thinks of himself as a majestic lion. Surely he will and must be crushed into insignificance.'

Quoting those famous words.

He got of the podium, signaled his buddy to join with him and left the room for a 'home party' where he would cook dinner for them all.

The room still remains cold as proof of the event.

Thus, the legend of 'Zero', the evil side of Lelouch, which was held on par with the universal theorem of Lamperouge was born. It was the greatest legend to ever to be rung in the pantheons of Ashford`s history and remained ever since.

' _Never cross the line between Lelouch and Suzaku. Else, the Fire princess will seem tame in front of the ice emperor, Zero"_

* * *

 ** _-In my area, elders not known or related to you are referred to as 'uncle' and 'auntie' as a sign of respect and familiarity._**

 ** _-Suzaku is a girl in case you didn`t notice._**

 ** _-The beginning part is written like how a child would. I did my best to potrey it_**

 ** _and most importantly_**

 ** _Happy birthday Lelouch!_**

 ** _Read and review and most of all..._**

 ** _Enjoy!_**


	2. Chapter 2

' _True love is not about how many 'I love you' one professes_

 _But the number of unseen, small things done_

 _That makes the person you love seem at ease,_

 _And the number of sacrifices you make_

 _Just for that person`s happiness.'_

The events of the week were over. The end results showed that the athletic Red house (Fire phoenixes they called themselves, why the hell would anyone pick such a ridiculous nickname?) Emerged victorious, taking the trophy for the 3rd straight ear. The house commander respectfully went up to claim the trophy. Everyone was ecstatic, since it went down to the wire with the adventurous green house (emerald peacocks, seriously?).

After the third place was announced, a certain house was quivering in its boots.

The third place went to the 'charismatic' blue house (guardians of the sea, now who had insecurities?)….

This left the 'mighty' all-rounders, the Gold house (the Gold Stallions, now that`s a real name) plundering the spoils at fourth place….. Among the four houses…..

Not a great show and no spoils to plunder. In fact it was their worst campaign in the houses history.

The bright side, they won the most coveted trophies of the chess tournament and a track event. The flip side, those were it`s only two victories.

Currently, they were in a classroom assigned to them for the celebration of their performances this week. Cheers of jubilation could be heard from the upper floors where the others were partying. Well except them as they sat in pin drop silence. All of the house members were anxious and petrified to face their unforgiving commander. Most just wanted to run away, but stupid rules….

"Um…. Suzaku, do you think….um….Zero will show up?"

She gave a nervous laugh "I`m not sure…. But most probably-" She was cut off when a frantic student raced into the class.

"THE ICE PRINCE IS COMING!"

Okay it wasn`t that bad, it`s just that the ice prince persona was just as effective. The footsteps approached and a loud 'SLAM' was heard just outside the door.

"Do…do you think… we will survive?" They whispered among themselves as they tried to hide behind Suzaku.

"What are we going to do?" someone asked

"I want to go home!" the bodybuilder among them wailed.

"Guys, why are you huddled behind me?" she asked the now apprehensive crowd.

"You are the only one who can save us, Suzaku. Just protect us from the apocalypse. We promise to do whatever you want, hell we will put our monthly allowances together." One of them frantically whispered

"Anything? Look I don`t wa-" and she was again cut off by the soft sound of the door opening. Irritated at being cut of repeatedly for various reasons, she looked to see the latest cause of the interruption.

Lelouch entered the class with a crate full of snacks, much to everyone`s surprise. Latching the door of the classroom (much to everyone`s further horror), he calmly walked up to the teacher`s table and kept down his load. This confused the already petrified group (prayers beads appeared from nowhere). Wiping of the sweat from his brow, he glanced blankly to the group, increasing their tension a 100 fold

Suddenly, his lips twitched up to form an amused smile

'Eh?' was all they could muster in their minds. Finally, deciding to free them from their agony opened his mouth to say something but decided against it. Only now… he hardened his features.

"Suzaku… have you forgotten your station?" he said with an arched eyebrow. The tone was frigid.

Knowing what her buddy was up to, she schooled her features into her rarely used blank persona and walked up to him to take her place by his side.

'Es tu Suzaku?' was everyone`s thoughts.

"As you can see, the performance this year was abysmal at best." Came out the sharp voice. Truly, what he lacked in strength, he made up in confidence.

"I will not say I am satisfied by the result, but all I can say is that we did our best. And that…." The smile returned "…. Is worthy of a small celebration."

They were now all gaping at 'prince charming' and his 'grinning princess'

"What are you`ll standing there for? Do you think Suzaku and myself can finish all of this... come along now!... Oi! Don`t be uncivilized, stand in line for your turn." He ordered the now mad rush which registered the whole act.

In all this ordered chaos, Lelouch was lofted into the air-much to his displeasure, oh well- and hailed as the greatest along with a Suzaku who was thoroughly enjoying it. They settled down after much song and dance. The atmosphere became electric as if they were the victors.

After they had settled down and were about to open their juice cartons one of the more feisty boys dragged Lelouch once more to the dais.

"Attention one and all! Our great commander will now restore the morale of his troops. Hence I beg everyone to keep silence"

As he made his way up once more to the ooh`s and cheers of the crowd he waved at them casually playing along with them. Every once in a while, he too loved the attention he received.

Setting down his carton he began "My fellow warriors." Much to the laughter of the group "Alas, we have failed in our great campaign against the phoenixes who just don`t know when long is too long." Affirmative sounds were heard. "But we will avenge this day, as I your king…" that led to some snorts "… has led you by example along with my…." He didn`t say anything as his gaze fell on Suzaku. She was now blushing and stuttering as a collective 'whoa' resounded in the air. It died down for their 'king' to conclude "….Next time, like the black knight, we shall show them no mercy…Oi, No fights now…" when he saw some knuckles were being cracked "…and take our victory!

This earned him a thunderous round of applause, though he wasn`t done yet. "For now…." He opened his carton "…eat, drink and regain your strength. I thank you all once again for your hard work. So cheer up and enjoy, you all have earned it."

He raised it in the air "A toast to our marvelous victory to come, Cheers!"

The entire room had a resounding reply to that and made a pathway for 'his highness' to reach his throne along with pats on his back and a thunderous applause. Though it was said in just, the little display really lightened their mood. All of them were full of smiles. Pleased at the sight he finally proceeded to sit. As he sat took his place, he got an almighty pinch from behind.

"Yaow!... what was that for?" he hissed at his assaulter who just glared back at him.

"What was that display, huh? Were you going to call me a slave?" She deadpanned.

He blinked at that and broke into a small fit if giggles. Truly, Suzaku never really may have grown up "Of course not. My subjects just keep interrupting me …" he waved to the crowd "…as you saw, I was going to say my queen." She shot him a death glare and put his hands up in surrender.

"It better have been something like that, or I would punch your face in the wall." She said with dead seriousness and looked away. Her annoyance thought was slowly disappearing.

Suddenly, she was being tugged "Come on, exercise nut, I did not bring all those snacks for nothing. Eat up, my queen…" he teased as he gave her a second plate of snacks. She huffed as she took it had a bite and slowly started relishing it.

Annoyance level 0

Damn that Lelouch for knowing what made her tick. She was now sporting a smile and turned towards him, as he was finally left alone to enjoy the party.

"Say, this is some real good stuff. Where did you get it?"

"Shut your mouth, eat first than talk." He sighed "honestly, how did I associate myself with you."

"You just couldn`t resist my baby charm!" she exclaimed. "Now answer the question."

"The meet I just attended this morning had allocated each house to spend $500 on buying snacks. Everyone of course was crying saying it is too little to feed 150-200 people." They got up to dispose the plates. He continued proudly "I of course, just took it and got all the goodies for $350."

"… How do you do that?" she asked in awe. In response he flicked his wrist. "Do you forget who gets the groceries and cooks up your meals?" he said triumphantly.

"Of course, how could I forget who is the 'actual queen' of the house?" she said innocently.

"Shut up!" before he could give a full reply, they both were dragged into a musical circle of song and dance. Lelouch sighed (Geez I`m becoming an old man!) and joined the reverie of his joyous friends, drowning in with their merriment.

That day, the Gold Stallions of the first year, middle school students celebrated their accomplishment like the grand kings of old, much to the annoyance of the victors.

* * *

If there is one thing that school students dread they are exams. It is that time of the season when enemies to into friends, rival gangs sign for a ceasefire and sit together formulating strategies to 'just pass' the exams. Paper notes are worth their weight in gold. Long forgotten deities are brought out from the cupboard and venerated.

And 2 days before the exam, the Ashford clubhouse was home to the deities of help. They might as well put up a donation box put outside so as to add to their earnings. They were in their 2nd year and the crowd seemed to get bigger.

"Sayako, is Lelouch at home?" asked the latest batch of 'devotee`s' teacher`s astonishingly.

"I`m sorry, but master Lelouch and young mistress Suzaku are currently in the library. You may find them there. Do you have a message for him?" She said with a polite smile.

"Oh… tell him I would like to have his notes for the next year. The current one`s I had were washed away." The professor said simply and departed.

Meanwhile on the branches of the giant oak tree, Lelouch and Suzaku ere resting from their hectic schedule. Though they loved to help, they too were humans and needed time off. On Suzaku`s suggestion they told their plan to Sayako, who happily turned down the guests.

"Yes… thank you, auntie." Lelouch put down the phone and made himself comfortable in his latest, most comfortable and breezy getaway.

"Hey Lelouch, are you heading back in?" a voice asked from an adjacent branch.

He cracked open one eye to let his gaze fall on the speaker. "You take all the trouble to make me come up here and now you want me gone?" he snorted.

A rustle was heard and then his branch dipped a little due to the addition of another person`s weight. He just closed his eyes only to be rudely awakened by a hyper- active brunette.

"Honestly, one of these days I will die and the sole reason will be you." He said with a tone of fondness.

"Don`t worry, I will catch you." She said.

He got up from his place and slid over to where she was and flicked her on the forehead.

"And we both will be dead. The newspaper headlines will be two lover`s unable to live in a cruel world commit suicide together."

"Eesh…. Me in love with you? I would rather die than fall in love with a weakling." She said in mock disgust.

"And yet you are friends with one…. Since the age of 3 and a half" He smirked.

She just hummed in agreement and leaned towards him, resting her head on his shoulder while the enjoyed the moment of peace.

As kids, his mother used to force him to climb trees and 'be a normal kid'. It was beyond his understanding as to why it was such a necessity. On asking her, she would give answer like 'Suppose you are stuck on an island filled with bears and the only way to escape is to climb a tree.' Of course the reason was ridiculous, but he couldn`t thank her enough. It was indeed easier to hide when your previous hideout (aka the rooftop) has become a public secret.

"You know, I should actually thank you. If you hadn't taught me the method to solve the quadratic equations, we would not be able to enjoy this peace." She mused out.

She then looked up "Stop it. I can _feel_ your egoistic side smiling down at me."  
They merely laughed at that and decided to remain there till it was about noon.

"Maybe we should bring Nunna and Rolo, you know. They to deserve some rest…" he mused as he absently played with her tresses.

"Hmm… let me take care of that." She straightened herself from her earlier posture. Suzaku then jumped on to the ground and proceeded towards the house to smuggle out the siblings

That`s right. While the rest of Ashford struggle during exam days, a certain pair who later brought even their siblings along were enjoying the outdoors.

That`s why, never leave anything to the last minute…

* * *

Lelouch was now sitting in for detention for taking his 4th French leave in gym for the month. Naturally, he was alone and his supervisor happened to be non-other than the school counselor . Apparently, her name was too long to pronounce so she used initials. She was…. Interesting to say the least. He had never met her before nor did he attend any 'session' and all he knew of her was from his classmates. It seems, if you wanted to be on her good side, all you needed to do was give her pizza.

'Hmm… Italian then.' He mused absently as he was drawing something related to the school project. He was so absorbed in his work to hear the lazy footsteps coming towards him.

"Hmm… quite the innovator, young man" she said blandly while observing his work.

Startled from his work he turned around tongue tied. He was rather shy of showing his 'works'. "Thank you ma`am, I appreciate your praise." He said finally with a slight smile.

She looked at him directly in the eye as if searching for something. She seemed to have found it as she smiled back and took the seat in front of him. She then busied herself with her mobile. Lelouch thought nothing much of it and proceeded his work.

"Lelouch, have you ever fallen in love?" she asked suddenly.

This stirred him a bit. "Excuse me….ma`am." the last part came out after he regained his mannerism.

"I asked you if you ever fell in love." She said monotonously while her eyes were back staring into his.

It frightened Lelouch that someone`s eyes could be so vividly different than the one`s he saw every day. But not a good different…. It was a bit, no very creepy. Nevertheless, he closed his eyes and calmed himself down.

"I love everyone around me, my family, friends, even my teachers. I can technically say that I have always been in love." He said to her evenly while matching her gaze.

Said eyes quirked up a bit. "Aren't you a witty one? Most people who I have asked this question immediately start to blush or rant about their current date. Indeed your view is refreshing and pure. But…" she continued as if to strike something deep.

"Have you loved anyone aside from direct family to the point of doing anything?" she now was leaning over his desk.

Though he felt challenged, he didn`t shrink away. Instead, due to the spontaneous reaction which seemed to be set in his being, it came out

"I have…."

This somehow made the counselor smile all the more, as she retreated back to her seat. But she wasn`t done yet.

"Do you love her for a specific quality or due to repressed desires?"

The answer came out smooth and simple "I love for who she is. It would be an insult to her if it were any less."

Her face somehow seemed peaceful as she got up from her place and went to the table. She picked a sheet and once again walked back to him "You are indeed interesting, Lelouch Lamperouge. I must admit that the girl is extremely lucky to have someone like you."

"Please sign on this sheet and you may leave."

"But we are only 15 minutes-"

She just waved him off "No one checks detentions and you passed my test."  
As he thanked his supervisor and was leaving, she handed him a $100 bill.

"Treat her and your family at pizza hut. Consider it as a reward for the test."  
She swirled her green hair a bit and disappeared down the corridor. He debated whether it was good practice to accept money from the faculty, even if they gave it willingly.

All those doubts disappeared on seeing the huge smiles on the faces of 4 Nunnally, Rolo, Suzaku and Sayako that evening.

That`s right, Lelouch had always loved her from the beginning. It didn`t frighten him the least because they knew each other since they were mere kids. The natural love he held just grew along with him.

Lelouch Lamperouge was deeply in love with Suzaku Kururugi. He didn`t even need to confess. But first, he would get his house in order and then will try to woo her heart. Not that it would be difficult.

* * *

Lelouch and his friend George appeared out of a very shady looking house from the slum regions of the city.

"Wow Lelouch. I cannot believe you actually pulled that of. I mean we are now rich man, RICH!" his partner screamed. To which he just cringed away.

"No need to proclaim to the world. Besides, he was not as great as he thought he was. Now listen, shall we divide as per our agreement?" he asked with a faint bit of arrogance.

"Sure buddy, here`s your share." And gave him the briefcase which had his 50% share.

Lelouch smiled as he graciously received it. He was in dire need of money due to the continuous blocking of cash by the Britannian family. Things must have gotten quite bad because she had heard Sayako cry over the phone to Jeremiah on selling some ornaments to keep them all in school. It deeply hurt his heart to see her in this state and he wanted to help out. As he was musing outdoors (Suzaku was practicing for the track team) he met George who was in his own predicament after his previous buddy dropped out on him.

Thanks to this, Lelouch had won $50,000!

He might make this a regular thing if ever they were short on money. Of course he would have to keep it a secret. Besides, if all his opponents were like the one today, than Jeremiah-

"Lelouch." Came a sweet voice from behind. As he casually turned to see who it was, he froze in his place. For there were standing Sayako and Suzaku.

That evening, the council had gathered in the clubhouse and were on his case today. It was like some old English movie interrogation scene. Lelouch sat alone in the centre while his inquisitors were round him.

If matters couldn`t get worse Jeremiah, Rin and Genbu Kururugi came down.

Worst, even the twins were against him.

He kept his head down. He couldn`t bear to face them.

"Lelouch, where did you get all this money?" Jeremiah asked lowly. The briefcase was kept before them open.

"And $50,000 no less. Have you started some side business we don`t know?" Genbu taunted.

The face went right up "NO! I would never do that… I…." He lips went dry and the face went down again.

" 'I' what dear?" Rin gauged further albeit calmly. "It certainly doesn`t seem like a passerby handed you all the cash on a charity basis."

"Answer boy, where did the money come from? And look at me and answer, you shameless creature." Jeremiah roared positively.

Mustering the little courage he had left "I… went out with my friend and… we went to an underground chess tournament…"

Two slaps landed on his cheeks shushing him up again. "You had the gall to go gamble and for what reason?" Genbu pushed on. Unfortunately, Lelouch brain had shut itself down. He knew what he did was wrong so there was no point defending it.

"…. You must indeed be a stain on your family line." Suzaku said with a stone face. This was seriously cutting the line, as even all the elders directed their gaze on her.

"Mistress Suzaku, I believe it is bad manners to butt in when elders are taking care of this." Sayako said firmly.

"Then why call us here?" she challenged her silently.

"Lower your gaze, young woman. Just because you are a little taller doesn`t mean you are an adult. We brought you down here so that you may not do what he did today." Genbu reprimanded.

"Kids, you all go back to your rooms." Rin instructed. As they made way to their destinations, they all said something which hurt the young boy badly.

"You're disgusting."

"I didn`t expect this from you, big brother."

"Mommy will be sad with you, brother."

When all of them had left. The males continued their investigation as to why he had to resort to gambling. "Forget it, Jeremiah. The fool will not speak." Genbu huffed. They decided to report the money to the police station. They would, however lie about how they got it so as to save Lelouch from potential punishment.

"You Lelouch will not get anything for a week. You will do your own chores, wash your clothes, cook your food everything! You will also not see your siblings for a week. Go earn some money if need be, I don`t care. It`s high time, you learn some dignity of labor." Jeremiah proceeded to raise his hand, frightening the wide eyed boy. "Don`t look at me, donkey." And was stopped by the females.

"Jerry, I think that is quite enough" Rin said harshly. The hand lowered and the males were about to leave, only for Genbu to add.

"Tomorrow, Suzaku will give you a nice treat."

Said boy had tears streaming down his eyes until the ladies faced him. Sighing Rin went to his side and comforted a bit asking him as to why he did it. Finally giving up, he told everything he had heard to the two of them.

"… why didn`t you tell us sooner." Sayako hugged him lightly.

"In any case, I think we went too far-"

"No, auntie. You all were right. It was my fault. I shouldn`t have fallen for the easy money being offered there. It`s fine…" he stood up and left from there

"… it`s fine."

Suzaku`s punishment the next day was equally bad. She had ordered him to run as long as she ran. It was going well for the first 20 minutes, even though she lapped him and kept passing insults. Until spots started hindering his vision. But being the stubborn boy he was, he continued running.

5 minutes later, he passed out.

The next thing he knew, he was back on his bed with a worried Rin, Sayako and Suzaku were by his side. Gently he got up asked took a glass of water from the table and asked what happened.

"You… um passed out while you were running. I shouted at you to stop and take a break. But you didn`t listen and went on. When I came back on track… I found you…."

He just nodded knowingly and got up from bed. Despite their protest, he went about to put on his uniform and went about his day. Lelouch said it he was following what was told to him.

If this was Lelouch`s way of black mailing, they huffed that it wouldn`t work.

Trouble is…. It actually was working.

The week went by with Lelouch following his instruction to the tee. He got up early to do his chores for himself before Sayako woke up. He would be out of the house before the others were up and come back at around 7.00pm. The sadness and suffering of their 'sun' was too much for them to bear. On Thursday, Jeremiah returned back to tell them suspend his punishment. He also informed them, with a small smile that the police had allowed them to take $25,000 with them as a reward for some reason.

When Lelouch was told about this, he gratefully thanked them and again apologized to everyone. He then proceeded to announce something that shocked them all.

"I have signed up as an intern at the nearby Tuner's and Restoration workshop called 'Geass Garage'. They will be giving me a salary of $1000 a month."

Then he sheepishly handed some $100 bills to a stunned Jeremiah. He returned back to his seat and smiled "This is an advance they gave me after seeing my work for 2 days."

The meal continued in silence with the twins excitedly talking to their older brother about what his work was about.

The next day, Jeremiah offered to drop him of at the place after his afternoon classes. "Could you show me around, Lelouch? I would like to see the place." He smiled to which Lelouch happily agreed. When they reached there, he showed him the workshop. The garage had two sections, 'Avalon' was the tuning section, headed by the eccentric Lloyd Asplund. While 'Ikaruga' was the restoration half-headed by tobacco loving Rakshata Chawla. Currently, he was doing small jobs in Avalon.

That night, as Lloyd was closing down his garage. He was attacked by two figures one who was dressed like a ninja and the other in some funny white trench-coat and wearing a ridiculous orange mask. They both were wielding swords and cornered the poor tuner against the shutter.

"Who are you?" he asked but in faint interest. This seemed to take the two by surprise.

"We… um… we are the 'Well-Wishers of Lelouch." The man said proudly, his hold tightening on his instrument. "I`m his knight of orange and this is the mystical ninja."

"I knew that boy was fishy…" he mumbled under his breath.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" they thundered while inching their swords closer to his neck.

"No…nothing." He said. Now he was clearly afraid.

The ninja seemed to be pleased with his reaction "regardless, our Lelouch has is slightly weak in body and strength. So if you happen to overwork him…"the kunai (which appeared out of nowhere) plunged forward to tear into the shutter.

"Okay, I get the drift." He said hurriedly. Happy at the reaction, they left the man and disappeared into the dark.

But Lloyd`s day was not done. Currently, he just escaped from 'the minister' and…..'the minister`s wife' who threatened to destroy his existence if their Lelouch had so much as got a scratch at his garage.

He was walking passed Ashford`s when he felt his legs tied themselves due to hidden trap and promptly collapsed.

'Here we go again' he sighed at what seemed now a routine procedure.

Suddenly, 3 figures appeared from the shadows wearing weird costume. One of them was taller and wearing a white…. Trench coat again with some blue bed sheet for a cape. The others-kids he deduced- were wearing some 4-sizes-to-big blue factory suit. Clearly, today was a wonderful day.

"My name is Lancelot" the white figure said. "And these are my accomplices Nemo and…" she looked towards the other and whispered.

"What was your name again…?"

"Vincent! Sister." The kid hissed.

"Right…. And this is Vincent!" she said with flourish "And we belong to-"

"The Well-Wishers of Lelouch. I get it. Now what shouldn`t I do to him?" he was getting impatient for all this.

The figures just gaped at him. "How did you…."

He shrugged "Have been running into you all since I left the garage. You are the third gang."

Recovering from this unexpected event, they throttled the man against the lamppost (lightly). The younger two took out toy pistols and pointed at him.

"Listen up, if you don`t look after Lelouch well…"

"We will drench you in ice water!" a younger girl squealed. As soon as that was done, 'Lancelot' knocked him down unconscious. He woke up later in his room, with his assistant Cecile Croomy by his side.

The next day, Lelouch was given an accounts job (much to his displeasure.)

One thing was for sure everyone kept 10 arms distance from him. No one wanted to meet the 'well-wishers of Lelouch' after what they did to annoying Tamaki.

* * *

Two days before her birthday and the night before her departure home, Suzaku was attacked by an unknown entity who seemed intent in tying her up the bed when everyone was asleep. In their struggle-where flash lights were turned on and off-something thinner than rope wrapping around her arms and legs and all, the intruder managed to slip-not without significant scratch marks. On her birthday, a thoroughly bandaged up Lelouch along with the twins went up to her and gave her a gift.

On their insistence, she opened it up-clearly a diversion tactic from asking about his injuries-much to Rolo`s and Nunnally`s hard suppressed laughter. What revealed itself was an elegant slim, alpine green gown, which had a lovely white shawl with a little gold embroidery. The Gown itself was beautiful and had intricate gold patterns along certain borders. Modern, simplistic yet chic would describe this piece of art perfectly. Moreover, it fitted her perfectly and complemented her body!

On asking where they got this expensive garment set, the twins couldn`t hold back any longer and narrated the tale. Nunnally came up with the idea of gifting her a surprise dress and along with Rolo, finalized the pattern. It was up to Lelouch to put together the dream work. The hard part was to get the measurements without Suzaku`s knowledge…

Suzaku simply went up to and kissed the now-red-behind-the-band aids-Lelouch while hugging him tight, thanking him for the gift and the trouble he went through. Much to everybody`s delight.

* * *

The season of prayers and abstinence came once again. This time, the great deity Lelouch Lamperouge was available from 9 to 1.30 pm and 3 to 6 pm for the exam week only. Those who wanted to be graced by his presence had to give $10. Specials blessings in studies were $20 per hour. If you wanted to meet his holiness later than given times $50 per hour. Students and professors were given a 40% discount.

Needless to say, at the end of the week a triumphant raven head handed a sum of $3600 of 'hard-earned' money. Much to a certain brunette`s displeasure as half of it was being saved in his personal account. 

Tamaki believed he was the greatest mechanic ever to set foot on mother earth, though others testified otherwise. He could 'discern' the problem faced by a vehicle just by looking at it. It was also his ardent belief that the entire world was hell bent on extinguishing his natural abilities which came to him like breathing. (Note the delusion of grandeur)

However he came close to questioning his beliefs for the first time. He was passing by a car tended by a certain 'Lelouch'. Insistent that nothing was wrong with the car, he pushed the boy aside and tried to start it off. Naturally, it didn`t work and he berated the boy for his incompetence. He should have taken the hint when the room`s temperature started dropping.

The ease at which the boy started the car (it`s a conspiracy! He swore) left him gaping as well the insult froze him in the spot. He paled even further when he notice a scratch on the teen`s forehead.

The next day, he was found hanging upside down of the garage roof with swords at the base and water pistols spurting at regular intervals.

* * *

Lelouch sighed for the umpteenth time as he pulled on his waistcoat. Suzaku was airing his suit in the other room for him to wear. Actually, he wasn`t looking forward to face the day at all.

Scratch that, he was downright nervous today. For it today, the court would decide on the custody of his siblings and himself.

The Britanians had built a solid case initially, which later faltered when critical, testified statements were found in Marianne`s locker which stated them to be kept with their current guardians. Naturally, they tried to fault with the assigned guardians, but so far no dirt could be unearthed against them. The case was virtually rock solid in their favor.

Still, he couldn`t help but feel nervous. His (former) father is still among the most influential persons in the country and one who achieved whatever he wanted. It would be surprising if they let them have an easy victory. He took a deep breath and close his eyes…

….. Only to have his suit thrown on his face.

"Welcome back to the world of the living." came the cheery voice.

He couldn`t resist to urge to face palm "Honestly, do you still have a 5 year old- no, don`t answer that. I think I already know it."

She giggled mildly and smoothed down the shoulders of the suits. "Nervous?"

"Yeah." He admitted "Everyone says that the case will be closed today along with the verdict. Though it is totally in our favor, I can`t help but feel…. Anxious."

She continued her actions while humming. Finally she looked up at him "Tell you what, when you return for lunch, it will be with all your favorites for your victory. Do you want me to make Mississippi mud pie?"

He just shook his head and smiled a bit. Dear Suzaku, ever the optimist and trying to lighten the mood.

"I rather you not try that. The last time you did, the entire kitchen resembled the banks of the Mississippi."

She stuck out her tongue and later pouted like the 5-year old personality she possessed and he had come to love. He put his hand up to ruffle her hair. Grudgingly, she allowed him to proceed.

"Since you have _tried_ to be a good girl, I will get your favorite triple sundae with extra chocolate sauce and Nunna`s and Rolo`s special. That is, if uncle Jeremiah allows me." He said lightly and turned to leave.

As they all came to see him off (family after all), he turned about and waved at them. "I`ll be back soon, wish me luck!"

What he feared actually came to pass. Somehow, he going to the underground chess tournament was found out bot his father`s team. And boy, did Bismarck milk it to its fullest. Heck, even the judge bought the fact that it put the position of his current guardian`s in doubt. The court was adjourned for lunch.

"I have one hour to get my arguments sorted. We can only hope for the best."

Currently, all the two men and the boy were at a nearby café. Lelouch remained silent while Genbu tried to look at loopholes in the case or even- on Jeremiah`s insistence- take custody for himself. In all this commotion, he remained silent as he pondered on his future. He was still 14 years old, was working part-time at a up and coming tuner`s workshop with a sa-

His thoughts were interrupted when he felt his phone go of. On seeing it was he hastened to pick it up.

"Goodness boy, you have put yourself in quite a mess." A bored voice stated from the other end.

"Ms. CC!? How did you know…"

"You ask too many questions. Give the phone over to Jeremiah." She said with a hint of irritation. Nodding his head he gave it over to his now puzzled man. On taking the phone, Jeremiah's jaw dropped open which was soon replaced by a serious look, probably trying to understand what that weird counselor was telling him. Suddenly, he snapped the phone shut.

"Genbu, wait for us here. The lawyer has asked us to meet judge in his chambers private." He said as he got up and put on his coat.

The middle aged Japanese eye`s widened a fraction, only to sport a small smile

"Got it, I will bring the car here too. If any problems just call me." Giving a nod, he ushered himself and Lelouch down the lengthy corridors.

"What happened, uncle?" Asked a now thoroughly confused teenager.

"It seems, you may have to live the rest of your adolescence with us." How did he manage to keep that straight face?

"I don`t mind that." He said and hastened his steps.

On entering the chambers, they both noticed the entire law team of the Britannia family as well as their lawyer. The surprise was the lime haired women directly facing the judge talking to him on some matters. She turned about and smiled at them.

"Mr. Gottwald, master Lelouch please take a seat." The elder judge said in light tone.

"Your lawyer here produced some damning evidence to the court along with solid proof thanks to Ms. CC here against the case presented by Mr. Bismarck. I cannot go into the details of what it is..." he said while looking over to Lelouch and then back at the rest of the party "… but after going through it, Mr. Bismarck wants an out of court settlement. In exchange of your silence on the matter, he client is ready to drop this case. Also, the client is ready to pay $250,000 as compensation. Thus I ask you, Mr. Gottwald, are you also willing to drop the case for the above conditions?"

When Jeremiah was about to voice his hesitation, the judge merely smiled at him kindly "Don`t worry, even though it is an out of court settlement I will personally see that Mr. Bismarck`s client will follow up with his promises."

After that, there was only one answer.

The two families had a feast of a celebration that night as the kids enjoyed their ice-creams. They were finely together and safe at last. 

The next day, Jeremiah pulled over at the same café. He searched through the crowd for his guest. On spotting her, he proceeded towards were CC was- twirling her hair between her fingers and munching on a pizza.

Pulling a chair out, he sat down next to her. "it`s good to see you, Ms. CC."

She turned to face the man while relishing on her delicacy "Likewise, Jeremiah or do you prefer Orange?"

"I rather we not bring that up. Anyway, was there a specific reason you called me out here?" he shivered at the memory. Good thing the kids were not there then.

"Now, what makes you think that I have called you for a reason?" she said, with one eyebrow arched up.

The butler just sighed "You never met up with Lady Marianne after she was kicked out…" it comes out more as an accusation "…then when we move to Ashford, you suddenly make an appearance out of nowhere citing the need of a job. We all know that a job is the last thing you need. Finally, helping us in the case. From what I heard, you don`t do things without a reason." His eyes narrowed at that. All that he got was an amused looking face.

"What if I said I did it all out of own desire for pleasure?"

The butler just leaned in towards her "I believe from the above reasons, pleasure is second compared to the other priorities."

She didn`t choose to answer that. After seating in silence for a while, waiting for Jeremiah order of tea she rummaged through her handbag for something. It took her a while to find what turned out to be a pen drive.

"…You called me all the way for this?"

Taking the last slice of pizza "this pen drive has the 'evidence' of all Charles`s alleged and real affairs as has had over the years. There is even footages of Marianne`s treatment and abuse during her time as vi Britannia along with the reason she endured it all too. Just in case 'the emperor' decides to go back on his promise, you can use this as a wake-up call as to why he still has a clean image. If you excuse me, I have a flight to catch. Hope you wouldn`t mind to pay the bill."

As she left the flabbergasted man in his place, a small smile crept on her face. After all, she had just got even with Marianne for how she helped her all those years ago.

"Your son is really too good for his own self, Marianne." She said to no one in particular as she went her own way.

* * *

It was the first day of the final year in middle school and the dynamic duo had just walked past the gates…..

…Only to have a bunch of boys and girls worshiping the ground they had trod on.

* * *

Ashford had a unique system for their student council. While the main council members were from the high school section, a member of the middle school would be voted from among the 3rd years there to represent the juniors. The even more intriguing part was that he had partial veto power over certain matters of the council. In short, it was the aspiration of every middle school student.

Well…. Except one.

"Must I really do this?" a certain raven head groaned.

His response was a thump on his back "of course silly, you won the preliminaries with the maximum votes and entered grand 4 as a favorite. The entire division supports you!" Suzaku exclaimed.

"…and whose fault was it that I was even there in the first place." Of course the culprit just laughed it away. Truly, was he to be damned by this girl?

"Don`t worry, brother. We know you can do it." Said a completely serious Rolo.

"Besides, I worry for the others" Nunnally giggled. She pulled down the nervous teen by his arm and kissed him on the forehead.

"Good luck, big brother. Do your best!" she said in a cheerful voice.

He patted her affectionately on her head. "Thank you, that means a lot."

"No fair, I want to give brother a good luck kiss to!" Rolo grumbled.

"And I want to give him a good luck hug along with it!" Suzaku pouted.

Yep, he would die due to affection overdose.

The selection for the representative (or 'baron/baroness') included interested parties to register their names with their homeroom teachers. This was followed by an election (preliminaries) among the 2nd and 3rd years. From here, 4 would be selected and would face off in an open debate. The final 2 would have an open interview each with the 5 professors. But being Ashford, it had to be grand. Thus the entire proceedings were viewed by an audience of students, parents and certain companies who would give scholarships for anyone who caught their eye.

It incidentally in this situations that Lelouch shined the most. Up in the audience, the Lamperouge's and Kururugi`s looked on in awe as the young boy was busy presenting arguments, agreeing to certain points and defending his own in the most civil and polite manner.

"That`s it now-" Suzaku nearly screamed in the near silent audience before she was muffled back in her seat.

"Where are your manner`s?" Genbu growled "Can`t you ever truly sit still?"

Rin however gently brushed her husband aside "I know you are excited, but enjoy the moment. You can celebrate with him later when it is done."

Suzaku nodded mutely and looked back on stage.

"We certainly bought him up well, eh Sayako?" Rin whispered silently.

"Indeed, he indeed is a star to all those around."

"Looks like he has finally grown up." Genbu said to Jeremiah

"He derailed a while, but came back on track none the less. I sometimes envy the boy for what he does." the butler sighed

"Hmm….. Don`t you feel pride at how he is now?" he prodded on teasingly.

A smile lit up the butler`s face "that I always had for being associated with him."

All the kids could do was watch at the charismatic and handsome boy as he swept them all with his passion and relentlessly fought with his beliefs.

As expected, Lelouch had won the debate which lasted 2 hours. Phew! Even the presidential debates weren`t so long. But it wasn`t the worst part, he still had to go through a live interview. He groaned at the thought of being grilled once more about his opinions on 'campus life' and 'student politics' and god knows what else. Worst, he wasn`t allowed to see his friends or family till this ordeal was over.

He smiled a little at that thought. While sweeping his gaze through the crowd, his eyes fell on proud happy Uncles Jeremiah and Genbu, Aunts Sayako and Rin. He however got a second wind of encouragement when his eyes met his siblings excited and hopeful ones and the bubbly and awe stricken look on Suzaku`s face

And her attempt to shout in that dead silence made it hard for him to hold a straight face.

"Lamperouge, get yourself ready in 5 minutes" a high school volunteer had come after him.

"Thanks a lot, I will be there."

"Anyway, you were great out there. Even the president is keen to work with you. Don`t mess up." He said with a grin and left.

He let out a small sigh. Even his seniors were going to work him to death.

'Look after me, mom as I do you proud' he smiled as he made his way to face his last test.

The final interview was going like a blast. Each answer Lelouch gave left the audience in awe of his mannerism and intellect. His ability to thread dangerous waters while pleasing everyone was more evident in the interview. Not that the other candidate was bad he too was excellent, it`s just that today was Lelouch`s day. Even the interviewers commented about the confidence and honesty the boy seemed to possess among themselves. Add to the fact that he was the only candidate who did not campaign for his candidature, it indeed seemed like a miracle.

"I told you, Nunnally. Lelouch got this in the bag." Suzaku whispered loudly to the young girl.

"Hmm… I think I had under-estimated my brother a bit too much." She said in fake haughtiness.

"No one can stand in the way of brother." Rolo exclaimed lightly.

"If that is all the questions, gentlemen?" the head of the panel asked.

"I have just one more for master Lelouch" said one of the panel members.

"Master Lelouch, what makes you think that you are worthy for this position, judging by the blot on your record sheet?" he asked, silencing the deafening crowd.

"I beg your pardon sir…?" the shock was seen all too clearly on his face.

"Mr. Manfredi, I think we talked about this question…" the head warned.

"I would just like to hear his opinion on the matter." He said with a tone which left no room for arguments and shifted his attention to a paper he was holding.

"Let me elaborate. In your last term in middle school, you were reported to have gone out to play in an 'illegal' underground chess tournament in the suburban area." He presented some photos showing him enter the building. "It seemed you had won $100,000 which you divided with your friend. In short, it would be fair to conclude that you were involved in gambling." a photo showing the exchange of the briefcase flew in front of the teen.

He now was boring at the boy whose head was slightly lowered. "And hence I ask you think you are worthy of the position."

The silence filling the room squeezed out all the air present. Everyone`s eyes were on the boy in question as to what answer he would give. Said boy raised his head to face Manfredi (whose eyebrows were raised in amusement) with a serene expression (much to everyone`s shock).

"I would love to give some background to the matter, respected sirs." He said facing them all "During that year, our family was having financial difficulties due to a personal matter. My guardians, who kept up a smiling face were crying for the need of money for looking after my siblings and myself. It was at this time that I approached a friend who willingly took me to the said place, despite knowing the consequences. Since I shop by that area, I had overheard about the said tournament. I did it for my family." he paused for a while letting it all sink in.

"Of course, they showed me the error of my ways and informed the authorities and school about it. I was punished for that and I deeply regret my error in judgment. Since then, I haven`t even thought of it."

Finally his gaze fell on the man who tried to wash his linen in public "As for your question, Mr. Manfredi, I cannot say if I'm worthy to be holding the position. It is for you and the others on the panel who will choose the most suitable person. We are just subject to your judgment."

The silence still persisted among all those present. It was clear Lelouch threw the ball back in their court. Manfredi cleared his throat and looked on at his 'challenger' "I am sorry to hear about what you had to go through, but you are right about one thing. We hold the power so as to push you into office or cast you aside." The crowd roared in anger at that until he put his arm up "… but this is a collective decision. My comrades would discuss this matter." He got up from where he was and the entire panel huddled into one corner. The boy kept on a small smile and was being cheered on by the gathering. Hell even his opponent acknowledged him.

"Go Lelouch! Show him what you're made off!" shouted a rather agitated Suzaku.

"Sister, I think you sh-"

"That`s right my boy! Give him a punch to knock things into place, let him know the power of Lamperouge!" Screamed an extremely furiously smug Genbu who was about to jump from his place had it not been for the butler.

"How dare does anyone tarnish my Angel like that, Let me- Sayako, unhand me right now!" Screamed a lioness of a Rin Kururugi.

After 15 agonizing minutes, the panel reconvened. From the looks of it, the head was not happy. An extremely smug Manfredi stood up to read the council`s verdict.

"The panel while admiring the many excellent qualities of Master Lelouch Lamperouge, agrees that he is not suitable for the position. His weakness to keep his emotions in check and his ability to compromise the position of the school due to them was agreed upon as the most bothersome trait." He looked at the livid crowd "It can destroy the school reputation and endanger it`s traditions. Furthermore seeing the relative inaction to the said matter, the panel has decided to make master Lelouch as example." The whole audience were on their feet.

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT, Mr. HIGH AND MIGHTY? IF YOU HAVE THE GUTS COME AND FACE ME!" Jeremiah was literally ploughing through the crowd. Genbu was by his side doing the same thing. Sayako and Rin were throwing shoes and were forming a small militia to do the right thing.

"Lelouch!" Suzaku screamed as she and the twins made way through the madness. Even though he put a strong front, he was slowly breaking him on the inside. Why was he alone, damnit? And what was that other kid gaping at?

"You shall be given 2 weeks of suspension once again. Further, you will not be eligible with campus placements in your final year and debarred from school activities for a term." Saying this, the council members declared the other stunned boy, the 'baron' and fled with the said boy indoors to safety.

As Lelouch walked down the stage the crowd parted in front of him. Murmurs were heard among them-some for him, some against. In all this, he could hear the shouts of all his dear ones. He couldn`t face them now, not like this. He pushed himself through a particularly nasty group of people and made his way outdoors.

He may have salvaged some dignity, but nobody would look at him the same way as before. 

"I`m going now!" came a strained happy voice from the doorway followed by the 'thunk' of the door. It was the 3rd day after the 'disgrace' and Lelouch still upheld his image despite what anyone said. The twins, Suzaku and Sayako were having breakfast when the raven head zoomed in, picked up his toast, kissed his goodbyes and left. The rest of the meal was had in tense silence.

"Auntie, did you speak with Mr. Ashford?" Suzaku tried to enquire on the situation.

"I did, Suzaku. That very day I was summoned. We spoke on the matter, since the decision was too harsh…." She then paused.

"So that means big brother will be pardoned, right?" asked a hopeful Nunnally.

"…I'm afraid that is not the case." Sayako continued "You see, Mr. Manfredi is a major stakeholder in the school`s trust. He also among its chief donators. If he is displeased, you know the consequences."

"….so it was either brother or the school?" asked a suddenly insightful Rolo.

"Yes, since he had also convinced other stakeholders, there is nothing Mr. Ashford could do."

"I don`t get this!" Suzaku angrily banged the table with her fist "Students have gotten out of worse offences than his with a warning. On top of that, he had received detention and excused. So why are they after him and why like that?" angry tears streamed down her beautiful face.

Sayako went to comfort her. She knew the reason all too well. Manfredi was a lap dog to Britannia Corporation. This was the silent ways to get back at them while remaining out of the matter. Unfortunate as it was, the psychological fights are very effective against its opponents.

"Now listen all of you, I want you to help Lelouch in all ways possible. Don`t upset him unnecessarily and don`t depend on him to do your chores. Am I clear?"

All the children nodded at that. Lelouch was the most affected, so it made sense to give him space while not making him believe he was alone. They all got up and made way to school.

Suzaku was puzzled when she was stopped by Sayako. "You are not going anywhere today. You will help me make a special lunch for our prince."

The two sat in a quiet alley maintained near the workshop, eating the lunch which Sayako and Suzaku had made. It was all Lelouch's favorites, boiled rice along with meat loaf wrapped in bacon, tempura fried vegetables, a fresh green salad along with and some orange juice to wash it all down.

"I must say, your cooking skills have improved…."

The brunette`s pride puffed like a proud peacock…

"…..only by a tiny bit" he teased

…. Which crashed down like a hot air balloon.

"That`s mean, I missed school just so you…"

"But I enjoyed it nonetheless, thanks for it." He said with a genuine smile.

"No problem, it is the least we could do for you." She returned the smile. And they fell in a comfortable silence, while Suzaku packed the lunch box. She observed him, dark circles round the eyes, disheveled hair, grimy skin and some cuts on his hands and legs….. It looks like-

"Don`t even think about it" he stated flatly "I can literally feel your gaze examining me."

"What are you talking about?"

"Please, as if I didn`t hear about the mysterious 'well-wishers of Lelouch'. I don`t want you all terrorizing Lloyd no matter how much I dislike him." he said with his all-knowing smirk.

"Guess we have been busted, huh?" she then proceeded to pull his cheeks "as long as you don`t hurt yourself."

"Whoa there, you say that and want to take of a seer of my skin!" he screamed as he wrenched of the hand of the grinning brunette.

"How are you coping?" she asked suddenly. Immediately the atmosphere around them darkened and his eyes became a bit distant. He chose not to answer the question immediately as he twirled his cup of juice.

"The same like the yesterday, the day before…and" he gulped "…on that day. I know I sound pathetic, but I don`t know how to feel after I have been stripped and laid bare for everyone to question." He let the wind dance in his air "I just want to disappear from this world."

Suzaku didn`t know how to respond to him. She had never been good at comforting others and rarely thought anything through and like her impulsive self, she took hold of his clenched fist. They relaxed against hers and gave back a reassuring grip.

"Don`t worry, I will not take to alcohol or anything like that." He stood up from his place and picked up the lunch box for her. "Give me a little time and I will be sorted out."

She smiled at that and accompanied him back to his workshop. "Hey, you didn`t tell me what you are working on this time." She said. There were still 10 minutes and they could hang about a bit longer.

"Don`t ask." Lelouch snorted "Lloyd suddenly appeared with a GMC Syclone on his trailer from a scrapyard yesterday. He was raving of its twin turbo V6. The rest of us saw just a pile of rest and a metal block called an engine. He wants to sell it for $40,000…."

And Suzaku happily listened to the technical rant that Lelouch had got absorbed and his ideas to make said vehicle even better. She may not understand all the technical jargon, but seeing him smile just a bit was worth it. 

The troubles didn`t end. Lloyd got into a contract with a particular Mr. Luciano Bradley. By the terms of it, he was supposed to be the financer of the workshop while Lloyd was supposed to pay back 30% of their earnings per sale. Evidently, he didn`t read the fine print. This nearly forced him to shut shop and pay penalties to him had the Weinberg`s not come their aid. Andreas Weinberg –a large businessman himself-declared he would finance and get them out of their current mess them as long as 10% profit was seen in their monthly balance sheets. It seemed Charles wasn`t taking his defeat lightly and he still wasn`t done with the Lamperouge siblings. 

Lelouch was now standing alone at the grave of his mother. Everyone had left him to give him some 'quality time' with her. And for the first time he admitted it openly.

"Mom, I love Suzaku with all my heart. Please guide me in the right way as you always have."

* * *

"Lelouch! Hurry up!" our excited brunette girl screamed from the staircase bottom. It was their first day in high school and everyone was in a buzz. The club house was busy with everyone going about the new school year, the twins joining middle school meant the most fretting in the morning was for them and….. Lelouch was chosen to give the inaugural speech as the valedictorian from middle school.

"You don`t have to scream down the house, idiot" the annoyed teen descended from his abode as he adjusted his jacket. It was a classy yet classless design, long sleeves white undershirt, black pants and a black school jacket with gold bordering.

"Well sorry for worrying about reaching late for an inaugural speech." She huffed in her new uniform. It was similar to the boys except for a beige jacket and an olive green short skirt.

"Don`t do that too much, you will age faster." He teased her.

"And whose fault is that?" She frowned.

The reply was a light flick on her forehead "As charming as this is, I have a certain congregation of students to address. So if you`ll excuse me, you are making me late" he smirked and picked of his bag.

"Yes, that`s- wait, WHY are you blaming me for this?" she screamed at the retreating figure and proceeded to tackle him down.

"Lelouch, you seriously need to remedy your hand movements. It makes me dizzy." Suzaku waltzed as if to prove the point.

"Stop doing that, you 5 year old idiot. You just love to garner attention. Besides, hand movement is essential for effective public speaking." He hissed while trying to control the twirling top.

Just when she was about to reply to him, they were both called out by an extremely familiar voices. On turning around, they were met by the sight of a blond boy whose hands were over a bluenette`s shoulders, spiky red hair and orange flowing hair.

"Gino, Rivalz?" Lelouch said in shock

"Kallen, Shirley?" Suzaku was in the same state as Lelouch.

"Hey, long time no see" the group moved towards them. They caught up with one another creating much of a ruckus with Rivalz shedding tears for meeting them after so long and Gino taking Lelouch in a head lock. Suzaku and the girls were catching up with each other with Shirley shooting shy glances of to a certain someone.

"Shirley, are you alright?" Suzaku noticed her strange behavior.

"Huh?! Of course, why would you say that?"

"You were zoning of, girl" Now even Kallen was worried.

"It must be the new atmosphere, I will get used to it." She tried to brush of.

"Don`t worry of anything, Lelouch and I practically live here. So you will get used to it. Say _Guren_ , are you all staying in campus?"

The redhead grinned at her old nickname "Of course, _Albion_. Me and Shirley will be sharing the room as are Rivalz and Gino."

This lead to the Suzaku jumping up, pumping her fist in the air "This high school is going to be so fun."

"Suzaku hasn`t changed a bit." Gino mused up front. Leaving said person a bit embarrassed.

"Of course, she is still the 5 year strapped in a 15 year exercise nut we all know and love." Lelouch was giving of that sickly sweet smiles.

"And you are still the puffing sloth who can`t run 400 meters without wheezing." She said indignantly.

He just waved it of "Not my fault if I'm not built to be an exercise nut."

"….And you both still fight like old ladies." Rivalz joked leaving them all laughing as they recalled their childhood.

"So, you all are in the same class as both of us?" Suzaku was rather surprised by that.

"Yup, we will never be separated from each other again!" Shirley chirped

"My aren`t you all a bubbly group." Came a smug voice from behind. Turning around, they were met by the sight of a blonde girl who was pretty infamous in these parts. She was Milly Ashford, current student council president from the 2nd year and granddaughter of the principal. Known for her outrageous parties, humongous spending and whacky 'revenge' methods everyone knew never to cross her path. Though she was actually a swell girl. She and Lelouch knew each other from various activities.

"Milly, nice seeing you. What do we owe the pleasure of your company?" He had to be careful around her.

"Nothing, Lelouch. I was scouting for members for the student council. And I think I have found the right members to." She had that evil glint in the eye. They all visibly gulped.

"So, I am recruiting all of you into the council. No questions asked, I dismembered the previous one." She raised her hand to stop them from interrupting her "I will see you today in the afternoon in the council hall."

After she left, they all let out the breath they were holding.

"So that is the she-devil of Ashford." Rivalz said dreamily. It appeared to be love at first sight.

"Don`t dig too much into it." Suzaku warned. She and Lelouch had many 'interesting encounters' with the said girl.

"Hey Lelouch, I heard about the great 'Fire princess', the one who shows little to no mercy on the track. Do you think you can introduce me to her?" Gino had his stupid grin as he slung his arm around the slightly shorter boy`s shoulder.

"Come to think of it, Girl. Could you tell me who the 'ice prince' and 'ice emperor, Zero' are? Their reputation is legendary throughout Pendragon." Kallen turned towards Suzaku.

The two moved a bit ahead of them leading them to their class. Lelouch just gave them a side long smirk while Suzaku couldn`t contain her smile.

"Why you already met them. In fact you were just speaking to them." Much to their shock.

* * *

"My dear vice president, how is the budget going." Came a chirpy Milly Ashford.

"Well, if _someone_ was more punctual, I wouldn`t be pulling an all-nighter yesterday and maybe even today." Came the irritated reply. Hell, he was even missing classes due to her tardiness. Thank god for his reputation and grades!

It was 2 months since they were 'inducted' (forced?) into the student council. Lelouch was given the post of vice president. Rivalz was the secretary (much to his delight), Gino was the treasurer. Suzaku was put in charge of the sports section and was the assistant to the vice president ('you two are so cute together' quote Milly) and the others were just members.

"Come on bro, you need to loosen up a bit." Gino was filing the accounts which Lelouch had 'extensively' going over and Suzaku was editing them with his recommendations on.

"Still, it wouldn`t hurt to do it over the month instead of a onetime shove. I`m beat." Suzaku slumped over a piece of paper which was just handed to her.

"Anyway" Milly brushed aside their concerns "Gino will treat you all today." Much to his displeasure. "I want to introduce you to our newest member. He joined in today and will be in your division. Also, due to various reasons, he will be part of the council." This lead to a raised eyebrow.

'May his soul rest in peace' Lelouch sighed internally. She was practically skipping across towards the door. On opening it revealed a tall pale boy around their age. He had a thin, frail build, lilac eyes and short, pick bubble gum hair which was pretty unusual to for a boy.

"Hello everyone, my name is Euphus li Britannia. Nice meeting you." He gave them all a sweet smile.

Lelouch and Suzaku was currently showing the young Britannia around the place. While Lelouch was trying to be friendly, Suzaku was holding a dark face throughout.

"I presume you have been to the dormitories?" Lelouch asked candidly.

"Yes I have. It quite a beautiful campus." They had stopped to take a break. He was actually quite decent and well mannered. Moreover, he didn`t seem to have any malice in him.

"Milly said that you had some reasons to join the council?"

The boy she closed his eyes and breathed out with a smile "I have a frail constitution as you can see. Due to poor iron levels in my body, I cannot do ant strenuous activity. Also…" he turned to face the raven head.

"… I wanted to see my half-brother."

This made his blood run cold while Suzaku took the boy by his collar.

"What do you want now, Britannia? I swear if you lay-"

"Suzaku" came the reprimand. Silently yet seething, she let go of the boy who was quite surprised from the outburst and Lelouch came forward and righted him up.

"Sorry about that, Euphus. It just that we have bad memories about that man." He dusted off his shirt lightly.

A sympathetic look came upon his face. "I understand what you mean. I know hath he never looks by twice if he sees any weakness in anyone. I was fed up being cooped up in that place. It was suffocating and toxic. Besides…" a wistful smile appeared "…. I was hidden till I was 3 and a half years old to cover for the fallout with your mother."

Lelouch retracted his hand as if it touched fire "What do you mean?"

"Apparently the affair lasted much before father got married to your mother. Hence, my elder sister and I were kept under wraps for so long. You know the rest." he then looked at him straight in the eye. "I know you may hate me, but we have met due to unfortunate circumstances. The least I can do is have a relation outside that mad house. I would like if you could at least tolerate me as an acquaintance." The boy was panting for breath after his little speech

Which left the two of them in shock. Seriously, what an impulsive kid which reminded him of a certain someone. As he remembered his mother`s dying wish, he gently let his arm rest on Euphus`s shoulder.

"I cannot blame you for that man`s faults. Nor can I say you were the cause of the troubles my family went through. What is done, is done. So I would say, I could gladly make a new friend."

The lilac eyes lit up at the unexpected offer again reminding Lelouch of his Suzaku. Unable to speak any further, he just put out his hand.

"Let me introduce myself again, my name is Euphus Li Britannia. Pleasure meeting you." The voice shrill with excitement.

Chuckling and realizing the symbolism, he took the outstretched arm "Lelouch Lamperouge, and this grumpy pot is my best friend since… eternity, Suzaku Kururugi."

The girl, still angry (80% at Lelouch for the introduction) took the hand and nodded in agreement. She couldn`t trust her tongue at a time like this.

* * *

It was a very peaceful time back in Ikaruga. Lelouch was selecting the alloy along with Gino who had joined last month ('what sort of boss I am if I don`t know what work is done under me?' it was startling to note Andreas bought the place as a gift for Gino.) Everything was goi-

"Rakshata, why did you steal Lelouch from me?" came an angered Lloyd followed by an extremely worried Cecile.

Yup, a pretty normal noisy day.

"Mind your tongue, pudding man. He is signed to work on the body of the Firebird since you were behind on engine tuning." She puffed right into his face.

"Get...(cough).. tha…(cough) that pipe out of my (cough) face and what do you mean it was signed?"

The bickering continued as the duo were still going on the paint job.

"Sheesh, they seemed to be married." Gino said jovially.

He got a shrug as a response "Apparently, Lloyd fell in love with her in college days."

"Hmm…. Speaking of love, are you seeing anyone?"

"Gino, I may have a 'fan club' among the students, but that doesn`t mean I`m seeing anyone." He was actually exasperated at that behavior.

"Come on buddy, at least a girl you have your mind on?" he prodded on.

"Why don`t you tell me about yours then."

"…. Well" he was nervous, surprising Lelouch "I think I like Kallen."

He was too shocked to reply to what Gino said so he busied himself to the paint composition. Thus an uneasy silence settled around them as they go about their task. Finally once they were done, Lelouch turned around and smiled at his comrade, a light smile.

"You two make a perfect match. I`m rooting for it, so don`t let some guy beat you."

"Well, I can send my friend Zero after him." and they had a hearty laugh at that. Finally as they entered the mixing section, Gino continued his old line of questioning.

"Tell me, is there anyone you are interesting? I can probably help you."

"…may be later. But yes, there is someone who has stolen my heart and you know her."

His eyes widened a lot at the implications on that and soon he was grinning like a kid who got his candy. He hugged the elder teen with all his might.

"You two definitely will make a wonderful couple." Came his radiant reply. 

Currently, Gino and Rivalz were wailing and hiding under bed sheets in the medical ward. Agonizing screams were punctuated by spells of mutterings of mercy.

"What happened to them?" the nurse asked with evident concern

"They were caught going to gamble by Suzaku who reported them to Lelouch" Shirley said simply.

The nurse mind was at ease as she injected them with sedatives

They would be fine….

….in a week.

Today was an important day in the clubhouse. The elders were gathered once again in the council. The twins along with Suzaku were sent to run errands. Currently, Lelouch was again sitting in the middle of the group, but for a different reason.

"Auntie Rin, Uncle Genbu, I am in love with Suzaku. So I would like to take your permission to go out with her." He blurted out. There, all those carefully scripted lines he prepared to convince them washed down the drain.

Silence reigned on the group for a while, which was broken by the sound of laughter from Rin and Sayako.

"About time you asked me that. I was actually thinking you would have done this last year." Rin chuckled as she went up to the boy and ruffled his hair.

"You mean it is okay?" seriously? No screaming and shouting of being too young or not being good enough.

Now Genbu laughed at that "Seriously, and I thought you were the smart one. I have no objections on the matter. In fact, I would have approached you."

"Come on honey, just say you are honored that he will be dating Suzaku." Rin teased. Genbu huffed a bit but conceded with a smile.

"Fine, you win Rin."

He looked over to his guardians both of whom gave him a thumbs up. He was on the verge of tearing up once again. But he had to inform them about some plans he had formulated so as to commemorate the event even better. He wanted to keep things low and subtle for a while and then formally propose to her on his birthday, which was still 4 months away along with a surprise.

"Honestly, you can`t do simple things?" Sayako sighed with a bit of fondness.

"I know I'm asking a lot, but will you help me? I will put all my savings into it." He turned towards Jeremiah who was sporting pretty happy with all the planning.

"Of course Lelouch. In fact, there`s no need for that also. How much is your estimate?"

"No more than $65,000" he said with all seriousness.

"Then you don`t need to break into your account." He grinned as Genbu called up the bank.

Lelouch couldn`t ask for anybody more supportive than this. He could just imagine the joy in those emerald eyes.

* * *

The next day, Gino and Lelouch were standing outside the gates of a mansion

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Gino whispered into his ear. Even though a rich kid, he was kind of nervous on see large houses. Lelouch read the classified section of the paper he had cut out.

"'The house of Malcal' yup, we are in the right place, bro. it seems the daughter of the house is giving it away as part of 'spring cleaning'." He said absently.

"Well, Leila was always a weird kid." Gino snorted earning a look of surprise from his comrade "What? I met her in a few charity balls I was dragged into and she would challenge anyone to some strategy game or another."

Something lit up in those amethyst eyes "what are we waiting for? Let`s go on in."

'Why did I volunteer to go with this guy?' he groaned internally.

45 minutes later, the two of them were driving down the road in a thoroughly rusted and battered Bristol 404 which seemed to like smoking the place down. When they inspected the car, it was evident it was never looked after and Leila was asking $30,000 saying it was a discount! Seriously, even though it was imported from Britain or manufactured or 'hand crafted' as she put it, by a niche company doesn`t mean that some metal barely holding together was worth that much. This lead to a bargaining session of 5 minutes.

Finally, she proposed a chess game. If they won, they could have it for $2000 else cough out $35,000. Mercifully, Lelouch barely won the blitz game.

"Lelouch, I think the trunk hood has fallen now." The blond said monotonously as he pulled over and the grumbling teen got out for the 10th time to recover something.

"Of all the vehicles needed to surprise her, this had to be it?" he continued to rant. As if the car took offence to that, it shut down completely.

Another 45 minutes later, a car (what was remaining of it) was pushed into the workshop by said boys. Jeremiah, who was talking to Lloyd and Rakshata about cost just looked on at the scene.

"Goodness, is that just a chassis and an engine?" Lloyd quipped

"And are those broken down, rusted body panels?" Rakshata deadpanned.

And said raven head was getting to intensive death glares from his buddy and guardian.

One of these days, Lelouch plans would be the end of him.

Over the months, everything was normal. The council was holding mini festivals after mini festivals every month. Euphus had grown quite close to Suzaku over the months as well as with Lelouch. He was a kind, cheery boy who had a dazzling personality and was what his fan club argued the epitome of handsomeness. Lelouch was actually relieved that Euphus took all the attention. Currently, said boy was talking to some girls as he was while Lelouch was going over the details of surprise party for Suzaku`s birthday in 3 days' time. On his insistence, Milly agreed to keep it among the council only.

Euphus flopped down in his chair after escaping from the said group. Lelouch laughed lightly seeing the teen so exhausted.

"Looks like someone`s had a rough time."

"I just don`t know what`s so special about me."

"You don`t need something to be special, you just have to believe it." Came the amused reply.

"Stop quoting movie characters and that doesn`t make sense in this context." Euphus said warily.

"… You know, you take things seriously like a girl." His face was still buried in the logistics. Hmm… he could cook a 5 course meal for-

"Say Lelouch" He just had to interrupt his thoughts "I like a girl but don`t know how to approach her. Any suggestions?" he tilted his head to the side. Euphus really had some girly habits.

"You know, I am not the resident love guru here. Why not ask Pujya maharaja, Swami Gino about that? He managed to ask Kallen out in one piece."

He laughed lightly at that as he got up "I really like how you use your knowledge in your humor. I`ll take your advice. Say, do you need help for the party?"

'Just when I'm done' he thought sourly "Nah! I have that covered. You carry on." Euphus beamed and left. Honestly, he is such a kid.

"Happy birthday, big sister!" the twins ran up to her as she entered the council room.

"Thank you my little angels, I can`t believe you put up such a wonderful surprise." She tugged them tightly while taking in the well decorated room

"Well, It was Milly`s idea to host the party…."Rolo started

"….but Big brother did everything else along with Gino and Rivalz" Nunnally ended. It was pretty cute to hear them like this.

"Hmm… I will have to thank him. Where is he hiding, by the way?" They were now pulling her by the hand.

"He is currently cooking up dinner." The brunette was now surrounded with the other members of the council.

"Happy birthday Girl!" Milly and Shirley shrilled out

"Oi, just because your 15 doesn`t mean you can beat me on track." Kallen stated with a smile.

"Your so on, Guren." And they chatted about everything for half an hour.

"Say, where`s darling Gino." Suzaku teased the redhead. Said girl just shrugged "Currently getting murdered in the kitchen by Lelouch. From what I know, Rivalz is fairing no better."

Suzaku smiled at that and made way "then I better go and save them, if you`ll excuse me."

Kallen just waved her off as Suzaku made way towards the kitchen. The smells coming from inside were divine…. But the scolding and shouting was positively horrendous

"I TOLD YOU TO PUT EXACTLY 2 TBSPS OF THE WINE, NITWIT."

"WHO TOLD YOU TO OPEN THE OVEN, THERE ARE STILL 5 MINUTES LEFT!"

'He will make an excellent head chef.' She mused as she pushed open the door reveling a frustrated raven head and two boys literally quaking.

"GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN AND COME BACK ONLY TO SERVE THE FOOD!" came the final bellow.

"Sir Yes sir!" said boys fled from the kitchen while not forgetting to wish her on their way out.

"Someone is in a foul mood." She quietly walked to as he garnished the plates.

Lelouch turned around to see her wearing the gown he had stitched last year. Indeed, it complemented her extremely well and brought out her natural beauty.

"You look beautiful." And he kissed her on the forehead. She smiled brilliantly back at him "Hmm… there are hardly any occasions that I can wear the gown you stitched for me. Sometimes I feel it is a bit over the top."

He shook his head fondly while dressing the last course "Euphus apparently has got a surprise waiting for you and the food is ready. Tell those two mules to come to help me."

She just pouted "aren`t I exempt of work?"

"Well, I will give you an extra serving of a double sundae-"

"Deal!" and she sped out with a speed defying the limits of her attire before he could properly wish her for the occasion.

When the food was done, Euphus presented her a tabby cat with a black mark on its right eye as her gift. Everyone loved him to bit`s with Milly declaring it as the council`s pet. Lelouch scolded her for robbing other peoples pets but stopped short seeing the joy in Suzaku`s eyes as she tried to befriend her 'pet' not minding on sharing him. He actually forgot to give her the sports chronograph he had bought as a gift. 

"Lloyd, what do you think of the engine?" Gino asked as they were going through the particulars of their project.

"Hmm…. The cams have worn out and belts are gone. Not to mention all 6 cylinders are nearly beyond repair due to wear on the block and pistons. Carburetor is damaged, but can be worked."

"Actually, it would be better if we put in a new engine." Cecile gave Lelouch a hand list of engines available in the market. "It would be much cheaper than a rebuild due to the state of this one and also give the car a nice turn of speed and power while remaining within the emission norms. Since the necessary mounts are there it would be no problem."

"Thanks Cecile." He took the list and went through all of them, asking their opinions and first-hand experience with each of them.

"I think this one fits the bill." He circled a catalogue description with his pen and handed it over to the team.

"Hmm…. A 4 litre bi-turbo V8 from AMG. Pray tell why this in place of the original 3 litre inline-6?" Lloyd loved his stats to bits.

"He mentioned something about matching with the original character of the car and something about engine tractability." Gino shrugged. This was not his cup of tea.

"Well, the devil is in the details." Lloyd smiled evilly.

"Oh and can you put 4 wheel steer?" Lelouch asked innocently, much to the joy of the eccentric mech.

"So…you want me to re-fabricate the entire body shell in aluminum and the sub frame in manganese- iron alloy?" Rakshata puffed pretty pleased someone would come to her for this. The boy just nodded vigorously.

"It is a done deal, dear." She puffed in flourish as she thought of how to out-do her pudding man.

* * *

"Man…I'm so beat! And Lelouch hasn`t come today." Suzaku huffed as she bit into her chocolate bar. Said boy texted her his inability to attend her race so he sent two bars as a 'sorry' with Euphus. Still, Suzaku came 2nd despite being annoyed at his absence.

"He was extremely remorseful when he gave me the bars." Euphus chuckled.

"Hrm… he better be. When I reach home, it will be hell for him." she smiled.

"Say, do you want to have a snack? This a neat place down street." He said as they walked out the locker room.

"Sure." 

"I`m sorry Shirley." He whispered as he hugged in order to comfort the crying girl. "I have loved my girl for a long time. Moreover, it would be like cheating both of you. I…I hope you understand." He was really sad for hurting one of his best friends.

"It`s alright." She pulled away from him and wiped her tears. "The mere fact that you told me outright and did not toy around really means a lot." She smiled at him "I really liked a real prince and I will always support you in any way." She then held out her little finger

"Promise to love and cherish her."

"Always." 

The entire council had gone for a movie somewhere in October. Everyone was excited at to see the genre defying art piece. They all took their places in the dark….

….Euphus sat with Suzaku surprising many since the girl insisted on her buddy next to her.

Lelouch laugh it off by taking the other seat next to her.

Soon the post-race ritual he had in place with her slowly started to diminish. Lelouch would diligently wait for her and she would storm in, change and leave saying it was for some party.

Silently, he would wait for 10 minutes and keep the bar on the bench and leave….

…. It would never be touched again. 

"Gino! Handle the engine properly." Lelouch shrieked as the blond lowered it into the bay.

"Come on bro, this is the lightest thing I have handled-" he was interrupted when the engine fell too fast, breaking a wishbone.

"Oops!" came the only word to break the tense silence.

Safe to say, he was sporting a wonderful bump for the rest of the week. 

"Thanks for taking us out Big brother." Nunnally chirped as they were going for a family dinner. They were currently gliding down the road to meet Jeremiah at the said restaurant.

"Will big sister be coming?" Rolo asked on arrival. Lelouch chuckled and ruffled his hair.

"She will, Big sister`s pet. Now go along and order something along with Uncle Jeremiah. I will greet her here."

As Rolo proceeded to the table, he knew something was of. Suzaku was coming out less frequently with them. Maybe he was reading too much into the matter. Besides, brother would be taking Suzaku as his girlfriend soon!

* * *

It was a week before his birthday where Lelouch informed the council about his birthday plan. Needless to say, all but Gino and Shirley were surprised.

"Seriously!? Congrats Lelouch!" Kallen was ecstatic that her best friend was going to be asked out by the best kid in the 'country' in her opinion and bear hugged him.

"Well, little Lulu has grown up" Gino patted him on his head, much to his annoyance.

"For the record guys, I would have asked her earlier, but I wanted to finish some things." He said lightly. He immediately regretted saying that. There were 'Oooh!' And what not filling the air everywhere.

"Hold it right there. In celebration for this great event we should hold a cupid day`s event!" the president declares.

"With all due respect, I veto that decision as I already made plans beforehand." Lelouch said simply.

"Spoilsport, your idea better be good." She huffed but listened well nonetheless. Everyone went over the details for about half an hour.

"This is going to be the best party ever!" the girls squealed at the end with Rivalz mirroring their excitement with them.

"They sure are an excited bunch." Gino chuckled.

"I hope I don`t regret this." Lelouch rubbed his temples.

"You know, I am extremely happy for you." he slung his arm (which now became a tradition) on Lelouch as they walked out.

"Thanks man that means a lot." For it certainly was.

 _Elsewhere at a park at the same time_.

"I would be honored if you would be my girlfriend." The boy said.

The joy and determination of the boy were reflected in her eyes as she took his arm

"As I would be too."

"Lelouch, I can`t believe how beautiful it looks." Jeremiah exclaimed on seeing the final product. Of course, the entire council except Suzaku and Euphus were present to see the handiwork. Lloyd and Rakshata-for once- stood side by side in pride at their creation. After all, 4 months of work returned the 404 to it`s mint stately condition.

"Well, Lelouch has excellent foresight in that regard." A puff was blown towards pudding.

"And since he is our star and such a good boy, we are giving it for half the price too!" Lloyd declared which came to $20,000. It was true, nobody worked as hard or was as dedicated as Lelouch on the shop floor. It was their way to say 'thank you' to their outstanding worker.

"But…"

"Shush" Cecile interrupted "It was Gino`s idea and everyone here agrees you deserve it. Just enjoy your day."

"Thank you for everything…"

"Aww…. I never knew my vice-president was such a softie." Milly teased.

"You don`t know the half of it, Milly dear." Rin just loved to pull his leg.

"Auntie!"

"This will be sweet! I can`t wait to see the look on Suzaku`s face. Three cheers to Lelouch." Kallen was really looking forward to this.

People passing 'Geass Garage' that day felt a sudden upliftment and brightening in their mood.

* * *

"We are going out!" Euphus and Suzaku declared at the party.

All the families gathered there, the friends were stunned at this announcement. It came out of nowhere and a tense silence filled the room. They couple thought that some explanation was necessary.

"Well…I know this is pretty sudden… Oka-san, Otou-san…" Suzaku mumbled out to her parents who still didn`t seem to recover.

But everyone thought about Lelouch. The boy who was losing everything in this, silently all eyes were on him with no one daring to speak. The sight was terrible to behold, he was totally heart-broken but made no attempt to show it. But the sadness in his eyes were there to see.

Lelouch heart was a maelstrom of emotions. He couldn`t believe this was happening and he wanted to scream out in anger, let out and everything and all. But he stopped seeing the happiness hiding behind the apprehension in those emerald eyes. Happiness for which he would sacrifice everything. Schooling a genuine smile, he decided to take control of the situation.

"Took you two long enough to tell us, right Milly?" He said lightly. Everyone looked once again at him questioning what was wrong with him. But the look he sent them told to play along.

"You're… your right there, our two love birds have hidden for _too_ long." There was a little accusation in that.

"We`re sorry for this, Lelouch." Suzaku apologized thinking everyone wanted her to get his approval. Also, she saw the hurt and sadness in his eyes for hiding it.

"Come on, Suzie. You think I didn`t notice? Hell I predicted it would happen today!..." tears still threatened to fall but his tone was still jovial. It was the least he could do.

'What are you doing idiot?' Gino and Kallen were screaming internally.

'Stop hurting yourself brother.' The twins were really now at tear point.

"….Uncle Jeremiah and I brought a special gift! Well, it is my gift actually but you can borrow it just for today" Jeremiah took the hint and led them out.

"LELOUCH! It`s a beauty!" Suzaku was downright excited on seeing the wonderfully polished alpine green car.

"Isn`t it? You and Euphus can take it for a drive." He declared with a smile.

"But the party…" Euphus was confused at this.

"I insist." Lelouch smiled at him "Don`t worry, the party isn`t going anywhere. We will cut the cake when you return."

Suzaku ran up too him and hugged tightly. "Thank you for being so supportive. I will always be thankful."

He returned in kind "As long as you are happy, we all are too."

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? IDIOT" Kallen bellowed as he took his seat on the sofa. The twins' wrapped their arms round him in order to calm him down. He was nearly on the verge of losing it.

"YOU SHOULD HAVE TAKEN HER AND RUN AWAY! WE WOULD HAVE STOPPED THAT PINK HAIRED PUNK." Gino wasn`t one to lose his cool but when he did it was pretty bad.

"I agree Lelouch, you shouldn`t have done that." Milly continued from where it was left.

"This isn`t some manga or TV show where the couple declares their love to everyone and suddenly the true love come and snatches his beloved away." He said softly "the real world isn`t like that. It would have caused too much pain for everyone were it any other way."

"Lelouch.." Genbu trailed of

"WHERE IS THAT GIRL? BRING HER BACK AND I WILL KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO HER PEA BRAIN!WHERE IS SHE?" Rin was hysterical at the turn of events.

She calmed down when she felt a pair of thin hands wind around her like so many times before and her sleeve getting wet with tears.

"Don`t worry, auntie." He said through the tears, trying to make light of the situation "I won`t be disheartened or anything nor will I take to drugs or alcohol. I… I'll try my hand in sports and all to distract me. Besides Euphus is a good boy, he will take care of her well-" He was stopped when she started rubbing his back in slow circles, comforting him.

"You have never asked for anything in your life and the one thing you wish is taken from you." She said softly and Genbu wrapped his arms around them

"I have nothing to help ease the pain you have, but we can all give you a shoulder to lean on." He said quietly.

"Just let it out, Lelouch." Jeremiah joined them trying to soothe the boy.

Lelouch cried his heart out in a long time as they all- including sniffing friends- converged into a group hug. It may have be seen as some cliché movie scene being played out, but it brought solace to the poor boy who missed his opportunity in love by a whisker.

It seemed the Britanians would ruin him after all. 

"Gino, can I ask you a favor?" he said in the middle of their lunch. Currently, the Lamperouge siblings, Gino and Kallen were on the roof top having lunch together. It was a week since his birthday, and while things had cooled down back to normal, Lelouch was no longer the same. He always seemed to carry a tad bit of melancholy with him. Suzaku`s parents- after much persuasion from Sayako and company- accepted their daughters decision with reluctance.

"Anything buddy." He answered at once. He felt a sense of dread fill him like it was a forewarning of something bad to come…

"…. Umm could you help in some sport?" Everyone blinked.

"Has the Sun risen from the west? Or is it the end of the world?" Kallen blurted out while mimicking said actions. All laughed at that.

"I`m serious, Lelouch. Did you hit your head on something." Now she was really fretting like some mother hen.

"Hey, I may not like any physical activity" his voice went down a bit "But there are still things I need to move on from. A little distraction won`t do any harm."

"You still can`t get over it?"

"You can never get over something that you have been immersed in and fills your being, Gino. Especially if you know the person from the age of 4."

Gino nodded at that and sighed in relief. "Well, at least you were not going to jump of the roof or anything. But…" he stopped Lelouch's protest.

"….There is something you may like and which befits your status." One could hear the drum beats to build the anticipation up as he took a pause. He rummaged through his bag and declared.

"And that is, Tennis!"

"Hmm…Tennis needs good long distance stamina and to prepare you for that, I can train you up a bit." Kallen said with a glint in her eye. They didn`t give the poor boy a chance to voice his opinion.

* * *

The council decided that Lelouch was akin to a pot full of water, during one of their philosophical talks. Surprisingly, it came from Suzaku.

The reasoning was that Lelouch was so full of good things and virtues that all bad just spills out if it tries to infiltrate in. This is the case even when something is taken directly from him.

Nobody could disagree with that, since he still held Suzaku and Euphus in high regard, treating them as family just like before.

* * *

It was a month since he started doing endurance runs with Kallen and basic training in tennis by Gino. It was painful at first, but he managed to channel all his anger, frustration and what not into his new endeavours. Add to that he still worked after class, one would say he was looking more in shape than ever before.

"Not bad for someone who couldn`t run at a constant speed for 5 minutes." Kallen laughed after he finished his 10 lap session. Initially, it look 20 minutes. Now it was down to 12 minutes.

"Here, big brother. Nunnally made this for you." Rolo handed him a towel as well as their special 'turbo drink' which energized him 'instantly'

"Thanks Rolo." He wiped the sheen of sweat from his forehead and faced the redhead "I really have to thank the two of you for your help. Not only do I feel more energetic and stamina increase, but even my grades have improved."

Kallen grinned on "Tohdoh sir is surprised at your sudden improvement and commitment for gym. You have now secured the top grade with this."

"The grade doesn`t matter" Lelouch brushed it of still wiping his soaked hair. Some of the beads of sweat were falling on Kallen.

"Stop doing that" she protested. "You are worse than a dog". She tried to dry herself off.

"I must say, Lulu is really improving." Suzaku appeared on track hearing the commotion. Rolo as usual bounded to her side.

"Stop calling me that, Suzie." He retorted with a smile "I`m merely doing this so as stop Tohdoh`s nagging. People are known to turn a new leaf."

"So can I call you an exercise nut?" She asked innocently.

"No, you may not." came the deadpanned reply.

Suzaku laughed at that and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"You're so uptight, aren`t you. Anyway, I will be going out with Euphus. See you later."

"Will you be home for dinner?" Rolo asked with his puppy dog face.

"Of course, silly. I will be back by 7.30pm." She waved her goodbyes and left.

"… You know, Euphus will kill you if he comes to know she kissed you."

"I can say likewise for him to. We have been close since heaven knows when. So let him be"

"How is it now?" Kallen asked in a concerned tone just as the siblings were about to leave.

"It much better, but the ache is still there."

"Have you thought about seeing someone else?"

He laughed with a bit of mirth "I will never be able to reciprocate anyone`s feelings properly if someone else governs my heart. Anyway. Ciao"

* * *

"Lelouch I`m so sorry about this." Milly sat prostrate in front of him. She wanted to get Lelouch and Suzaku together at all costs, so she held a grand opera play for valentine`s day and there were 3 weeks left. Trouble was, she thought the rest of the students also felt that way, so she made a pole of the leading actors. It didn`t go as planned.

Leading couple:- Euphus and Suzaku.

Second couple:- Gino and Kallen.

Side actors:- Nunnally, Rolo, Rivalz, Shirley and Milly.

Antagonist:- Lelouch.

"How dare the students think so lowly of Lelouch?" Suzaku was bellowing at this. True, she loved Euphus and all but making her Lelouch was beyond thinkable. Kallen shared the sentiment.

"He doesn`t have the looks nor qualities of a bad guy." Shirley lamented.

"Plus he doesn`t have the physique- Ow! What was that for Gino?"

"Your mouth wags a bit too much at unnecessary times."

"Calm down everyone, especially you Suzaku. It`s just a play, not some real life scene being played out." He dismissed any further protests and faced the president. "Have you made a script for the play yet?"

"Umm… no. Worse, I advertised it was an original play" she said sheepishly. Lelouch rubbed his temples and went into meditation for 5 minutes. Everyone crowded around him to see what he was up to. He suddenly stood up, startling everybody and proceeded to walk out.

"Milly, arrange a theater for us and necessary logistics. You can use Euphuses`s help, if that is okay?"

"Sure, no problems for me." He said happily.

"The rest of you, can you arrange for your costumes?" he asked as they were still behind them.

"Not a problem, captain!" Gino whistled everyone was fired up. He turned to face them before closing the door.

"Also, find a good brass band. I will write a script for the play. How long has the play to be Milly?"

"About 1 hour." She said seriously.

"Good, it will be done by tomorrow. See you guys later." He smiled at them and went his way.

"What are you standing around? The VP has given orders, go run along now." 

"This…. is a tad bit too generic." Gino sighed as he just finished reading the script of the play Lelouch had written overnight. The poor boy looked like a wretch when he handed it over with Suzaku telling them he finished all their coffee.

"The play is beautiful, dear." Milly waved her finger in his face to reprimand him "It is the ending which is generic." She had that evil smile on her face.

Catching on, Gino gave his version of the same smile "So, let us do some editing to it."

"That`s my boy, maybe it will 'ease' the load of our dear VP." She giggled in triumph. 

"AA-CHOO!"

"Woah, Lelouch! Are you okay?" Suzaku was immediately by his side. They were enquiring the prices with various caterers.

"Yeah…. It may be the pollen in the air." He dismissed.

"Or maybe Milly has cooked up some horrible plan." Euphus said with a chuckle.

"Don`t even mention about that." The raven head now was clearly distraught.

* * *

"Outstanding acting, bro. you really pulled the play together!" Gino was hopping with excitement. The play had become a super hit with various people asking for a rerun at other theatres.

"Well, I will admit Milly`s additions in the end made the difference." Rivalz just loved to heap praise on his dream girl.

"Well, it went against the notion of the leading pair." Lelouch was still annoyed at the script change. Milly had single-handedly turned it into a story revolving around the villain.

"I don`t see any reason for you to be complaing, Lulu." The brunette bounded to his side with her boyfriend in trail.

"In the end, everyone got a happy ending." Euphus exclaimed.

"You`re right, Eu." Gino saw the pain flash in his buddy`s eyes. "But that is a matter of perspective."

"Enough talk!" Milly declared suddenly "Lelouch, you are paying up for our treat of subs!"

As he counted the cash in his wallet, he wondered why he still accepted bets proposed by the she-devil of Ashford.

* * *

"We`re extremely sorry, Ma`am." Lelouch, Gino and Kallen apologized one last time to their physics professor Sophie Randell. She was known to be an extremely ruthless person when it came to her field of expertise and wouldn`t tolerate any nonsense. She would exercise no mercy even if they were students doing things for the first time. As luck would have it, she was their project guide.

"It isn`t about a question of 'apologise' and mundane 'social norms', fool." She spat on Lelouch "It is a matter of priorities. As per the schedule, you were supposed to have prototype of your 'revolutionary' generator ready last week."

"But we had the CAD models-"

"Shut it, goldilocks!" She snapped at Gino and turned back to the raven head. "Your group is the only one which has not presented or made a working model. It also doesn`t have all its members present for the weekly reviews, which I remind you is mandatory. True, the concept you are working on may be excellent, but if this tardiness continues I will personally talk to Mr. Ashford to stop funding for this project and pick another group in the national science fair."

"But-"

"No buts, Kal. I give you all another week or else I may even decide to withhold your results. Now get out of my sight." She dismissed them of without a second glance.

Said group was now back in the council room where they all gathered in silence. They couple looked back at Lelouch whose hair covered his eyes.

"Um… Bro, you shouldn`t think too much into what she said." Gino tried to calm them all down.

"Gino, we wouldn`t be in this situation if Euphus had contacted and met our supplier and Suzaku says the fabricator is 'busy'. Let`s face it, he and Suzaku haven`t attended a single project review except the first one. Add to the fact the money we got is peanuts and you and Lelouch are working over-time to make up for it. While we slog, they are busy in their fantasy world." Kallen was beyond furious at the treatment and insults the boy faced for the last 30 minutes.

"You know, I agree with you on that." Gino admitted grudgedly. No matter how great their friendship was, it didn`t mean they could get away with everything.

"Hey, where are those two?" Lelouch broke his silence.

"I called them 2 hours ago and they said they would be coming soon." Gino breathed out. As if on cue, laughter and excited voices were heard behind the door which opened to reveal the object of their torment.

"Speak of the devils." Kallen said softly

They looked around at the silence enveloping the room and the three teens staring at them.

"Hey… did we miss anything?" Euphus tried to lighten the atmosphere.

It earned a sharp laugh from the blond "Miss anything? Oh! That must be the joke of the year. Have you forgotten what today is?"

"Gin, there`s no need to be mean here. Just tell us." The brunette was clearly upset with the change in atmosphere clutching her boyfriend's hand.

Kallen pointed at the gesture "That seems to be the problem." She said simply. The confused couple- now pretty agitated- turned towards the raven head who was simply examining them with a blank face.

"Cut the riddles guys. Lelouch, at least you tell me what`s the matter."

"You do remember we had a project review, right?" he said simply.

"Um… no. I think it slipped out of our minds."

"You know." Now his tone was icy "As much as the we all love to see you two go around like lovebirds, it`s time to come back earth. We have been selected to take part in the national science fair and _you two_ are on the team. You both had been given specific task to perform within a certain time limit." He was now positively bellowing "naturally, thanks to you two again we had to postpone are schedules and all. It seems all that time was wasted in some stereotypical things that you have indulged in. Thus as leader of the group, IT WOULD BE ADVISABLE IF YOU GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER."

Silence enveloped the entire council room. It was rare for Lelouch to lose his temper like that, but circumstances justified the need for it.

"Lelouch, I'm sorry and all that but I think it`s gone-"

"Too far." A dark voice said and launched itself on Lelouch. This was followed by a fist fight between the two of them. The remaining members tried to separate the two furious individuals which-surprisingly-needed Euphus and Gino to hold the raven head back while Kallen did the same for Suzaku.

"I KNEW FOR THE LONGEST TIME YOU WERE JEALOUS OF ME, YOU SWINE. WITH ALL THE DARK FACES YOU MADE AROUND ME WHEN I`M WITH EUPHUS." Suzaku said with a crazed voice.

"YOU, DEAR EXERSICE NUT ALWAYS SEEM TO THINK THE WORLD REVOLVES AROUND YOU. PRAY TELL WHAT DID I DO NOW?" he sneered

A crazed laugh was heard which sent chills down everyone`s spine (except the 2 in question) "OH PLEASE! SAYS THE ATTENTION SEEKING PEACOCK! ADMIT IT, LELOUCH. YOU LONG TO BE LIKE EUPHUS, SO KIND AND NICE. HIS SO VIRTUOUS AND HAS EVERYTHING, WHILE YOU AN ORPAN-"

She was cut off by a resounding slap on her cheek. "Mind your tongue, girl. You may have a boyfriend now, but that guy over there _was_ and _is_ always there for you." Kallen warned her off and stared down at her.

"Let them be, Kallen. I will get out of here. What else do you expect from the blind?" Lelouch had ceased his struggling and got out of the grip of the two boys. Quietly walking in front of the girls, he left the room.

"We have had it rough for the last few days, it is understandable for him to have this reaction" Gino stood in front of them "But really, what you did today to Lelouch for all he has done for you was seriously crossing the line and shooting it out of this world."

"You are siding with him, Gin?" she said in disbelief "Didn`t you just see what he did?"

Kallen just shook her head "If you had all the pressure he is facing from all quarters, I say what he did was a mild thing. The project is in trouble and that is thanks to you two not adhering to the schedule. He needs your help to make it work."

"But his Lelouch, right?" Euphus said dumbly. "The smartest kid in existence, why does he need our help?"

This flared up the blond like nothing else. "Yes, he happens to be Lelouch, the smartest and most hardworking kid on the block who didn`t have to face what he did thanks to someone`s incompetence."

"Let`s go, love. You two, go and meet Ms. Randell." Kallen took her boyfriend`s arm and pulled him out of the council room.

* * *

It was the last day of Milly Ashford in college as she was graduating out and as was tradition, a 'fairly' normal party was held. It was the student`s farewell to a student friendly president after all and Rivalz was heartbroken at this development. But to keep his beloved in high spirits, he kept smiling along.

"I knew I would find the president here." She said cheekily entering the balcony where Lelouch had escaped into. He said nothing to that and the two stood in comfortable silence feeling the pleasant breeze blowing.

"It`s pretty shocking you would have chosen to graduate now." He said with a tinge of sadness.

She laughed it off "I can`t be caged forever in this place, I have a life of my own. Besides, your troubles just increased President"

He grimaced at that "You could have found a more suitable candidate."

"Well now, how could I have given my all important job to some uncouth here." She faked a hurt expression "besides, you have all the powers of the school."

"Can I throw out certain professors?" he sounded a bit hopeful.

She chuckled at that and knowing the answer he rolled his shoulders.

"How are things with Suzaku?"

"Well, everything is back to normal." He said with a smile. "Her mother took her to task after Kallen narrated the tale. The poor girl would have been dead if I hadn`t saved her."

This way the talk went back and forth for a while, recollecting old days, plans for the future and all. The party was nearing its end inside when they were done.

"Please have mercy in the news agency you will be working in." he laughed off as they walked back in.

"And you get yourself a good girlfriend." She smiled back, which was replied in kind.

"Oh my Gosh! You look so pretty!" Shirley squealed on seeing Suzaku enter the ballroom. This was a part of the new event plan set down by the council. Instead of monthly events, there would be three massive ones in the year. First would be a tech carnival of student competition and industry interaction followed by a sports festival of 7 days featuring joy rides and matches open to the public. It was the most fun of all with true involvement of everybody in it, including the general public. The crowning glory however, was the new annual Christmas ball, which had a specific theme for it. Held on the 23rd of December, it was on the lines of a charity ball. Money collected here was solely used to celebrate the feast of joy in the orphanages and suburbs of the city.

"I wonder who the designer is?" Milly asked slyly. She was among the many invitees present

"You look gorgeous yourself, girls. I was afraid I would look like a pauper here." Suzaku chuckled off. The cat she was carrying I her arms purred for attention

"Why I'm sorry Arthur, you look handsome yourself." The auburn teen took the cat in her arms and ran her fingers along its length. He now purred in contentment.

"I nearly forgot how much of an attention hog he was." Milly laughed at the sight. Suzaku joined in with the merriment.

"Besides the get up you put on him makes him look really sit well in the event."

A blush dusted the Japanese`s face "You see, when Euphus went to shop for my dress, he saw it in a pet store and thought it would look good on him."

"it`s quite late now. Isn`t he attending the ball?"

"No, some family thing popped out of nowhere." Her eyes dimmed a bit.

"Anyway, you have Lelouch to help you through the night." Shirley said cheerfully making emerald eyes widen a bit. As if on cue, Arthur jumped out of her hold and dashed out with the girl trailing behind.

"How are things now in your dorm?" Milly asked with a serious face.

"I really messed it up when I asked to move out on pretext of privacy. It made him go in complete apology mode. Things are back to normal though. In fact I still spend 98% of the day I the clubhouse. I wonder why I even moved out." She sighed.

"He was always the sensitive type. As well as a bit headstrong."

"Trust me, you haven`t seen the half of it." Suzaku huffed.

"Still, he dissolved all the fun we used to have. No monthly festivals, no events and what sort of party theme has 'subtle authority' in it?" she said while wagging a card.

"Heh… actually, it was my idea to have a ball with 'royalty' as a theme. He just toned it down to more manageable levels." The brunette said nervously.

"Hmm…. So the VP has the president in her little finger, guess that can be useful." Milly said with a smirk, which made Suzaku sweat a bit.

At that moment, the main hall doors opened to reveal a threesome enter in. Everyone held their breath as the 3 Lamperouge sibling`s made a gracious entry in. Gino was shouting something over the mike (he was the MC in some 'knight of three' costume.) but Suzaku didn`t pay attention to any of it. Her eyes were fixed at the handsome sight of her best friend wearing a formal black trench coat with what appeared to be a white full sleeve`s shirt with slight gold bordering on the collar, black pants with similar borders and black dress boots.

"Well I guess only he can pull such a theme off in style." Milly laughed out.

Suzaku wasn`t given a chance to reply as Rolo and Nunnally pulled her and Milly away to join them.

Suzaku was currently sitting alone among the tables meant for the council. Lelouch went over to meet some dignitaries, the rest of them where on the dance floor. She was watching the giggling pair of Rolo and Nunnally waltzing around and literally lighting up the dance floor.

"May I have a dance, my lady?" a familiar Baritone addressed her and equally familiar right hand was held out.

"You may, dear sir." She said with a smile as Lelouch guided her on the dance floor and led them to a slow waltz.

"Brother, you and sister look so pretty together!" Rolo beamed as they danced next to one another.

"You two look like a prince and princess in the movies!" the twin said excitedly as the said couple ruffled their hairs of the junior dancing pair and along with them, led the rest in the centre of the dance hall.

"You really are beautiful today." Lelouch whispered to break the comfortable silence. She looked up in those joy filled eyes and found herself smiling.

"And you are building up a wonderful physique." The mischievous smile came as soon as the groan was heard.

"Leave it to you to bring up sports in the midst of a party setting."

"Hey, you do that with your technical jargon too!" they both laughed it out a bit as the dance took a slightly faster tempo.

"Seriously, the 'King' of the 'Gold Stallions' who led the 1500m and tennis teams to victory really befits his title."

"…. I`ll take that as one of the few complements you give me, My Queen."

They fell back in silence for a while with Suzaku having a contemplative look on. Ever the closest person she had, Lelouch wordlessly asked her what`s on her mind. The grip she had on him tightened a bit.

"I… Euphus and I have decided we will marry when the time comes." She forced out quietly. A few moments of tense silence filled the air. Their dance was still fluid as ever but there was that something that was off.

Lelouch`s heart seemed to break again. To let the woman you love go over to someone else would wrench anybody. He wanted to scream, cry out, throw a tantrum, anything but he didn`t. Suzaku`s happiness always took precedence to all his decisions. Besides she seemed a bit scared and uncertain about it and was looking at him for support.

' _Love is the one thing you have to let go in order to have it in its fullest.'_

That`s what Jeremiah had always told him. He may have wished things to be different, but this wasn`t any movie where anything was possible, it was the real world.

"Do you really want it?" he asked in a gentle voice as he gently lifted her gaze to meet his. Those eyes were filled with joy, happiness and love for the said person. It had actually answered his question already.

"Yes." The firm voice replied.

The music hit a crescendo and breaking norms, he pulled her into a close hug and burst into a twirl. It was fast, rapid and ought not to flow with the waltz, but yet he pulled it off. Rolo and Nunnally mimicked their 'elder' siblings move and everyone stopped to see the lead pairs finish of the dance in a flourish.

"Lel…Lelouch, what are you doing?"

He remained in silence for a while and then pulled away while not removing his arms from her and gave that wonderful, genuine smile that was just his.

"I will gladly support whatever you wish to do." And he couldn`t have been anymore true to himself and her.

* * *

Ashford was covered in storm clouds on a certain day and Zero walked down the corridors to the middle school section.

"Suzaku, you got to stop Lelouch!" Rivalz screamed into the council room

"What happened? Has someone 'insulted' me again?"

"Worse, the twins have been asked out by a girl and boy and Lelouch wants to 'meet' them!" he explained hurriedly.

"Don`t worry, everything will be fine." And she went back to work.

Needless to say, an extremely happy Lelouch was seen doting on the budding new couples. 

"Good news, bud! Dad said he will absorb you into Geass Garage as soon as you finish studying." Gino burst in their shared apartment. Lelouch was finishing his university course a year earlier due to extra credits and superior intellect.

"I you sure about that? I mean… it could be ruinous to have me who has black spots in the records." Referring to his gambling fiasco which still haunted his university records along with some made up one`s.

Gino lifted his finger`s to count "One, you are the valedictorian of Ashford`s middle and high school and later, this university. Two, workmen records of a hardworking, diligent yet intelligent worker and finally Lloyd and Rakshata say they can`t survive without you."

"Fine, you win…. What position am I being offered?"

"Vice- chairman, of course!"

"Ugh… are finances are in a mess!" Ohgi, the head accountant of Geass motors exclaimed over lunch.

"What`s more, business is down and we make just 3% profit on each car now." Lloyd carried on the rant.

"Well, half of are expenditure goes into buying pudding and tobacco." Cecile mumbled to herself.

"What`s the main problem we face, other than Tamaki?" Lelouch looked over his lunch. At 23-year old boy was VP of a now-near-dead company.

Gino cleared his throat "Apparently, a lot of our competitors are dealing with cheap body mods and such leading to a bad name for Pendragon`s tuners in general. Plus the fact that we don`t 'offer' much and since many who want complete rebuilding of their rides go out of the city, business is hit. We got just 2 cars this month and they are just some body work."

"One was a fat Pontiac Aztec." Lloyd grumbled.

"The other a Honda accord, we lack high value cars." Rakshata added

Silence descended once more as they tried to find a solution of their problem

"Why don`t we offer a special package and barn finds?" Lelouch suddenly perked up.

"What do you mean?" Gino was now as curious as was everyone else.

"We can offer a special package to our future customers, like turbocharging, subtle aero mods, 4-wheel drive…. You know like a performance package. The other one is like we scout cars-old ones-restore them and sell it like how you did my 404. We may even give it a name for brand building."

"Ooh! Ooh!... how about 'code geass'? It sounds pretty cool like 'cobra jet' and all." Gino shouted excitedly like a kid in a candy shop.

"Hmm… initial cost may be high, but the long run the profits just might sustain us." Ohgi mused. The head of divisions however had their eyes on the Mustang Boss 302 pulling up in their garage.

"So, what are we waiting for?" They both said in unison.

As it happened, the idea worked. They made a profit of $30,000 on that car alone.

* * *

"They don`t want any family member to attend nor maintain any contact with them after it." A 24 year Suzaku cried on Lelouch's shoulder. She had got engaged to Euphus and Charles forced her to stay in the mansion. External contact was at a minimal with this being only her 3rd visit to the house in as many months. Naturally, everyone was protesting against it. It was an insult thrown on the face of the Kururgi`s by Charles.

"All they say is that I can call one friend of my choosing." Lelouch tried to calm her by rubbing her back gently in smoothing circles.

"Do you really want this?" He asked when she quieted down.

"I really do, but I don`t want to abandon oka-san and otou-san." She whispered in his shoulders.

He enveloped her in a warm comforting hug. "I will talk to uncle and auntie about it and….convince the others. Don`t worry I'll look after them."

They settled back in silence once again.

"Would you please accompany me there as the best man and all?" she pleaded in a small voice.

"I will be honored to."

After much persuasion from his part, they all agreed to let Suzaku wed the Britannian and Genbu smiled that at least she would have one known face in an unknown face. The twins were horrified for not being able to see their sister again but were sweet talked out of it. The entire household was gloomy at the decision taken by Suzaku. 

The day came soon and Lelouch knew he gave a part of him when he escorted Suzaku to Euphus`s side in a chapel filled with apathetic and rumor mongering crowd. The only people who cheered for them after they took their vows was Lelouch and the Weinberg family who were present there.

"My boy, I tell you this will be the envy at Goodwood revival!" Lloyd hoped around like a small kid around a 25 year old Lelouch. Currently, Geass Garage had a world famous reputation of being a small but highly advanced restoration and modding shop. People from the European Union flew down just to have the crew a once over their cars.

Currently, they had to rebuild the Bentley Blower this side of the Atlantic, in time for the Good wood Revival.

"So it is a plain classic restoration job, right?" Gino said with a hint of disappointment.

"No, in fact he asked for a period correct 'code geass' pack." Rakshata puffed happily.

"That means twin scroll turbo and all. Alright, let`s get cracking." The raven head couldn`t wait to see the final product.

If Geass Garage wasn`t well known enough, the 'code geass' Bentley Blower pushed it into superstardom, winning all the races it partook in.

* * *

"Euphus is sterile, Lelouch." She whispered into her phone. It was a year into the wedding and this was her 4th time she had called anyone. "I won`t be able to have kids."

His heart clenched at that. She loved kids to bits and Rolo and Nunnally were proof of that. Words failed him at this moment. It was clear from her voice that this wasn`t the only problem she was facing.

"There`s no need to worry." She could still read his thoughts over long distances. "I face no other problems here. Euphus was even sadder than me when he told me about it. I told him it was fine if we adopted." The conversation went on for a long time until there was no more to be said. 

"How long will you remain like this?" Rin placed her hand on Lelouch`s cheek when they were alone during Gino`s 3ed wedding anniversary party. 26 year old raven head took his auntie`s hand lovingly in his.

"Long enough so as to not hurt anyone with my own." 

"Hey, when do you think bro will get married?" 22 year old Rolo asked his twin. Having finished his studies in electronics, he was one of the three breadwinners of the family and worked in Geass Garage.

"I don`t know. Maybe we will have to drag him up the Alter." The twin girl replied. Currently wrapping up her studies in designing she was to travel to Italy for her internship and work experience on a scholarship. And as expected, they both doted Lelouch as he did them.

"But who will be his suitable match?"

That no one knew. 

"Gino Weinberg, chairman of Geass Garage speaking." The blond spoke into the phone after running from the shop floor.

"Nice finely being able to speak to you, Mr. Weinberg." A strong voice came from the receiver "My name is Gene Smilas and I call on behalf of the board of Ford motors. We would like to build an original version of our 1970`s GT40 racer and were going through prospective parties. Do you think you can do it?"

The blond was shocked to silence for a moment before he found his voice "I`m afraid the cost of components would-

"Don`t worry on that factor. You will be given monetary aid as well as the original drawings of the vehicle. I want to know if it is a yes or no?"

"Why of course, we would be honored to do the job." Came the enthusiastic reply.

"Thanks for your co-operation, Mr. Weinberg. We will talk about the other details later. Though, can you assure this project your personal attention?"

"Sure. We are running a little slack these days."

"My heartfelt thanks once again. A sum of $200,000 will be transferred into your company`s name by the end of the week."

* * *

It was late evening on the 10th December 2027 a typical day in the office for Lelouch Lamperouge. Currently working on 3 client cars, he was busy for the evening and had sent Rolo and Nunnally back home. It was only him and Gino going over various components to be ordered for their builds. Their discussions were interrupted by an unknown number calling Lelouch.

"Lelouch Lamperouge, VP of Geass Garage here. How can I help you?"

"Lulu!" came a familiar voice which he hadn`t heard in a year.

"Suzaku!" he shot up from his seat. "Where are you and why haven`t you called me or any of us?"

"I`m sorry lulu." She continued in a scary warm tone. "For not listening to oka-san and you. I`m sorry for being a bother for you all."

Knowing something was wrong, he gestured Gino of his departure and silently pinpointed the location of the call (Thank you, Rolo!). It was coming from the bridge which connected Pendragon to the other side of the valley.

"Suzie, what are you talking about?" he quickly made his way to his Mercedes 'hammer' his special getaway car which was parked in a special corner of the garage.

"Euphus cheated on me." She said sadly. "Not once but 4 times, Lulu. He said I was worthless and threw me out on the roads. It was an act to ruin us completely. You were right, Charles always wanted to get back on me." She fell silent after that.

"Suzaku? Suzaku talk to me damn it!"

"But now, no one will have to worry about me. I will be going to a place where I may be of some worth. So I called to say goodbye and ….thank you for being with me."

"Suzaku don`t you dare put down the phone"

"You can`t change my mind now. I will go away now, please don`t be sorry for me."

There was silence as he tried to think how to buy more time. He couldn`t just let her give up like that.

"Then, won`t you let me see you? Just one last time?" he whispered. Time seemed to stand still at as the meaning of those words sank into her brain. For nearly 4 years, she endured all the insults, mistreatment and humiliation of her imprisonment. She had nearly forgotten what it meant to be loved and cared for due to her lack of contact with anyone and everyone she knew

"Fine…" she choked out "I am at the bridge. You better be here in 10 minutes or I ma-" the phone was cut off. Still filled with despair but since the call had kindled a spark of hope within her again, she waited.

The Hammer roared down the streets at 180Km/h with Lelouch hitting the last stretch at 231Km/h. he had completed the entire journey in 4 minutes leaving a traffic mess in his wake. He jumped out of his seat and ran to the only figure standing there.

"You came…."

"Of course, idiot. You may have been away for so long but that doesn`t change anything between us." He panted between breaths.

"….You mean even all that destruction you left in your wake?"

The raven head turned behind to see a real long trail of knocked down cars, broken stalls and the like.

"I`ll deal with that later, come along now everyone has been waiting for you." He started tugging her back to the car but she freed herself from his grasp.

"I`m sorry Lulu, I have granted your wish. Now-" she yelped when a strong pair of arms hoisted her up and started walking.

"Your time has not yet come." He said softly and silently she rested her head on his chest as she allowed him to carry her back to her true home.

"How long has he waited?" Suzaku asked her parents and extended family. It was a 6 months since she returned back home. Saying that it was far too long for him to go on like this, Rin took matters in her own hands and told her daughter everything.

"If I remember what he told me correctly, formally since 1st year middle school and informally, since the beginning." She said with a wistful smile.

"You remember that car on his 16th birthday? It was the day he had decided to ask you out." Sayako supplied.

She brought her hands to cover her mouth and started muttering gibberish. Rivers of shock and sadness started to flow down the plains of her face. The twins wrapped their arms round her like the good old days.

"Don`t worry big sis, he has still loves you too dearly to ever tell you." Nunnally offered her the little comfort she could.

"He didn`t even see anyone else saying he would be cheating both of you." Rolo continued what his sister set out to do.

"You are very lucky." Genbu said as he stroked her hair "For he waited so long, fearing his love for you would hurt anybody else. No other boy will be as chivalrous as him."

The next week, the two of them officially started going out together. Lelouch was a bit hesitant since she just left a traumatic relationship but conceded to the great persuasive power of Suzaku.

On the 5th December 2028, Lelouch went down on his knees and asked her to marry him, messing. As usual it went against everything he had planned to say ('you know, the car feels lonely with only me in it. So could… you know… take up the co-driver`s seat forever?' _is that even a declaration of love?_ ). Everyone face palmed after he did it, but to Suzaku it was the most sincere proposal she ever got, despite not having any of the usual charm. Since it was filled with Lelouch`s charm, he got an ecstatic yes from the teary brunette as he escorted her to the ride which was waiting for them for 12 years.

It was on Suzaku`s birthday the following year they exchanged vows in a small but extremely lively chapel. The one and half hour ceremony ended with a thoroughly overjoyed Lelouch carrying out his Suzaku. Rolo, Nunnally, their families and the rest of their gang of friends were close behind flanking them from all sides. It was indeed the marriage they all were waiting for and they were not going to end it so easily!

"Lelouch, it is just a car!" Suzaku deadpanned. They were leaving for their honeymoon and the raven head was making all sorts of calls to his office to get the perfect chariot for it.

"It`s not just anyone." Lelouch whined, fed up of explaining it to his idiot "it`s the S-class Uncle Jerry stole from Charles. It`s the car that made us meet each other, take us to and fro Ashford. It may seem stupid, but I have memories attached to it…" He looked up and felt embarrassed by the smile she was giving him "… I know I sound like a sentimental fool, but I want us to truly treasure our time together in something I cherish."

She chuckled and kissed her dear beet red husband "Even in your technical talks, you can be quite a charmer. I didn`t mean to hurt your feelings, I`m sorry. And yes, I look forward to see your latest 'creation'."

The raven head sighed in contentment as he placed his head on Suzaku`s lap. Taking her hand like any small kid, he placed it on his cheek, both felt comforted and happy at each other's touch.

Sleepily, he let out one of the only three times he said the phrase to her over their time together.

"I love you."

Even though it was never said often, she smiled softly. For it was only from him that it was said with enough emotion to wipe all her painful times with the Britannian's.

"You gave other`s happiness without measure or care." She continued to stroke his hair gently "It is the least I can do to return even a fraction of it."

* * *

"Mommy, can I take it off now?" a young girl with short curly black hair pleaded as her mother led her through an isolated part of the park.(Ashford`s public grounds)

"Not yet, Akane. It is your birthday surprise, remember?" Suzaku laughed a bit at how her 10 year old daughter whined but obediently followed her without further fuss.

"We`re here." She whispered into the girl`s ear and removed the blinds. Violet eyes opened slowly only to see her mother and father directly in her line of vision. The quizzical expression disappeared when they stood by her side to reveal a small picnic party under an oak tree.

"Happy birthday, Akane!" Rolo and Nunnally shouted out along with her grandparents (Both), Godparents (Gino and Kallen) and her best friend Paul Weinberg!

"What are you standing for? Don`t you like it?" there was a hint of panic in Lelouch`s voice. It was smothered away when she jumped up and tried to hug both her parents at the same time.

"I LOVE IT! Thank you Daddy and Mommy!" the happy parents retuned the hug back to their little girl and let her go to enjoy her party.

Rolo and the kids were having a balloon inflating competition which led to a series of laughter from them as each of his inflated balloons burst and for various other antics their silly uncle performed.

"She seems to be enjoying it." Suzaku beamed as she lay the food on the park tables.

"I`m glad I listened to you." He sighed, earning the attention of his wife. Knowing he couldn`t hide from her, he just told her.

"The new tax reforms is dwindling what little savings we have. Also, business is down due to recession. Gino`s dad agreed to release some more money, but it won`t last forever. I hope I can still deliver a decent education to our daughter. Add to that if anything happens to the two of you…"

The brunette picked up his arm "We will cross those bridges when they come. Let`s think of the present." She smiled back at him and pulled him back to the party.

As they cut the cake, he knew his wife was right (as always). The smiles on everyone`s faces especially of his daughter and wife, made him realize that the future would be okay as long as the present is cherished and lived in. True, troubles will come and the current one is yet to get over, but with his family and their happiness as motivation he would see it all till the end.

The simple yet extra-ordinary life of Lelouch Lamperouge is not yet over. There are and will be arguments, fights, tears, laughter, and joy. This is but the way the world works. The thing is we can make it a little easier to live in with a firm foundation of love.

This story too, is not over. It just renamed itself.

 ** _The simple lives of Lelouch, Suzaku and Akane Lamperouge_**

.

And remained so till the end of their days.

* * *

 **Thank you all for following up with this story, it means a lot to me.**

 **The play will be seperate chapter from this and i hope it will be well received.**

 **Once again, I hope you all will enjoy this chapter.**

 **Please read and review!**

 **Signing of till later!**


	3. Chapter 3

_**The Master of Albion.**_

{the play mentioned in the 2nd chapter of the story.}

(This scene is enacted with the shadow effect technique)

It is said that once, many ages ago where the earth and sky met as one, a wondrous landmass existed which was had chosen by God to be the dwelling place of humans. As were their norms and wishes, they had peacefully lived with one another in this great utopia initially. However, from among them rose a leader who wished to defy the natural order of things and establish 'Human will' above all. With the help of the Devil, he succeeded in his endeavor on earth. Still not satisfied with his handiwork, he decided to challenge God at the gateway of earth and heaven. There were many hidden voices which were against his rule, but had no power to oppose him. Among this small minority, a king was born to right the madman`s wrongs. No one till date knows his name nor his family`s origins. He was known as the 'White king' who stood against the darkness of man. Slowly but surely he rallied the peoples and won back all the territories captured by the enemy. But the madman always had a bloody response for him. Finally, their came to an end when they faced off in a duel on the great barrier mountains with their armies fighting below. Victory went to the 'White king' as he went about restoring the natural order as best as he could.

Pleased at the courage and tenacity of his creation, God bestowed on him and everyone who followed or wished to follow him in the future, a kingdom which was built around a great city. So long as the will of man for goodness remained till then the city would stand. It would be hailed as the greatest of all cities and the 'White King`s' descendants would rule over them all.

The great city bestowed upon the humans was said to be Albion, the trade centre of the continent and the capital of the Lamperouge kingdom. It was ruled currently ruled by the 150th descendent of the 'White king', noble and upright king James. The good king as was what seemed to flow in the bloodline, looked after his country well, defended its borders from enemies, exercised justice when necessary while also showing mercy. When he came of age, he got married to the simple farm peasant whom he had known since childhood and loved to no end. From her he bore a son whom they christened Lelouch.

Prince Lelouch like his father and ancestors before him, was known for his virtues, graciousness and wisdom. He was often seen in the streets of the city wearing simple attire as he helped the poor, gave arms to needy, and the like from a young age. He even performed manual labor for the old workers who were weary from work. The good prince was the darling of the kingdom and the subjects prayed for his good health and happiness.

It was the crown prince`s 12th birthday and due to the special request of his sibling`s and him, the King proclaimed throughout the kingdom that he would grant any and every wish to whoever came to his court for it, should it be within his power. All the people thronged from far and wide to make good of the proclamation. Gifts, money, land and clothes were given to who all had asked by the King, his Queen, Princes Lelouch and Rolo and Princess Nunnally. Grateful people left the court praising their fortune and thanking the heavens for always giving them a good royal family to rule over them.

The news of this however, spread far beyond the boundaries of the kingdom and into the other realm. It even reached the 'Forbidden' mountains where the supernatural were said to live. It actually happened to be the dwelling place of Lucifer`s sister on earth, the great temptress and sinner among mortals. Being the one to tempt the 'Wise king' of old, she decided to test James`s moral as revenge for what his ancestors had done to her over the ages. Besides, it was the right time and a wonderful place to finally doing her own thing and no longer answerable to her brother.

As the ceremony carried on in the castle, the sky around the place grew dark and had a strange purple hue to it. The older people and knights recognized the tell-tale signs of the enemy and asked the Royal family to refuse the witch`s entry on hallowed ground. They refused, insisting that it was wrong to show someone away no matter who they were, for they may have come in peace. As the windows were flung open, they remained where they stood and waited for the witch to finally appear. After much destruction of the palace interior, she made her appearance in the most disrespectful way possible. The evil thing threw a glance at everything that was within sight as she walked around. During her meanderings, she took a fancy to the young princess. On inspecting her closely, she demanded that she be handed over to her as ransom. The crowd however, pleaded to the witch to reconsider her demand and Lelouch even offered himself. Being the sadist that she was, she toyed with them for a long while before 'reconsidering' her wish.

She wanted the kingdom to be handed over to her as her own.

This finally led to a huge and angry outcry against her. She may be the evil one`s sister but that didn`t mean that she couldn`t be subdued. The king looked once over his people who said that they wouldn`t hold it against him if he didn`t grant the vile wish, even though it went against his honour. Taking their advice, he refused her outright and was about to throw her out when she cackled. Her signature black clouds surrounded her as she rose into the air once again. As she did so, a dark fog descended on the land as she cast the 'ultimate curse' on the kingdom. Soon, fierce lightning struck fire in the fields and surrounding areas destroying one and all. Back in the castle, she asked him to reconsider his decision for if not, poverty, diseases and famine would run through the kingdom if her wish wasn`t granted and the intensity would worsen over time and then, kingdom would never be able to recover. Should she somehow be banished and vanquished by them, the consequences would be brutal and that person`s worst fear would come true.

The crown prince- the naïve idealist, not fully understanding the reciprocations and some hidden agendas- was able to summon the divine powers to assist him for being pure in heart. Having them cast judgment on her, he banished her from the face of the earth once and for all. The kingdom rejoiced but only briefly.

Within those moments of rejoicing, everyone had their skin boil over. Soon, persons after persons cried in horror and pain as they started disintegrating into dust. The wind channeled all of these voices directly into the palace where Lelouch stood alone and helpless under the pantheon. Finally, to his utter sorrow and dismay, he saw his dear family disappear into nothingness though they smiled as they did so. His mother and father gave him their eternal blessings, his siblings their eternal love. Before long, their dust ran through his fingers and were blown off by the wind.

The grief- stricken prince walked out of his castle and unto the streets. It was nothing but a picture of ruin, evil and decay. The land wasn`t cleansed as the dark clouds concentrated over the capital. He walked to the streets to only see more piles of dust which were once his subjects, friends and family. Everything was empty, even the live-stock wasn`t sparred from the curse. The poor prince, wretched in sadness and grief ran a sword through his body which he found by the garrisons in hope of joining his people and escape this nightmare. Only, he did not fall dead. He did not feel the pain of the sword crushing and piercing his organs or the loss of strength due to blood-loss. He did it again and again in wild craze, but no matter how many times he did it, the result was the same. He just couldn`t die.

The young prince finally came to a cold understanding. It was his love that brought on the tragedy and his virtues couldn`t save him for naught. He had been upright and good all this time, for what? The ruin of his family? His people? Wasn`t heaven supposed to help him or do something about this?

There was no right or wrong, it is all relative. All things are outcomes of your actions. As these thoughts kept on playing in his mind, the prince resolved to let his heart be filled with bitterness and indifference-for there was nothing to feel hate or anger for. Getting up from where he was, he closed the great gates with his new found strength and sealed off his kingdom from the rest of the world. He didn`t need to do this. He could have let the rot to spread on. But just this time, he would use his upbringing to dictate his actions.

'Let not others suffer from your faults'. The least he could do was spare the world from madness.

* * *

(The white curtains go up and the actors come on stage.)

Years passed from this day and the dark clouds and fog forming a barrier between Albion and the rest of the world were still present. 'Hell on earth', 'House of the Demon' these were just some of the names that Albion was called, disregarding it`s holy origin. Old legends were morphed to suit the current mood of discontent of the people. History was rewritten to suit the ill-gotten ideologies which targeted the city. Every calamity or wrong doing that happened to or in the country was blamed on the place and the master of the castle, Zero. People lived in fear of the curse, consoling themselves that they had not been wiped out like the people of the said city just yet.

Over the years, numerous Kings forged alliances after alliances to kill the demon and destroy the city. Countless armies of wizards and witches were dispersed, numerous spells of various branches of magic were cast, and 'indestructible' tools of war used. But Albion stood firm and its master stood tall despite all. Weary people prayed for a sign from above to answer their prayers. It was answered. After much investigation and verifications, the high priests of the land prophesized that the children from the houses of Weinberg and Cardemonde would be able to slay the demon Zero. But, the curse would be removed by someone exceeding the combined strength of all the present wizards in the kingdom as well of the prophesized ones.

(The next scene)

Young Suzaku Cardemonde was courting prince Euphus Weinberg for the last three years. Being together since they were children, they were both trained together in all the various magic forms and different crafts of war and weaponry for they were seen as the last hope of the kingdom and maybe, the world. Their training, brutal. Their work, hard. Their pain after training and battle sessions, excruciating. But it was for the benefit of the people, they were constantly reminded. It may have been seen as a cliché reason, but it actually made them push harder and perform better. Finally, all of their 18 years of their lives they sacrificed and devoted to hard work came down to the activities for the next 3 weeks.

Suzaku was saddling her horse in the courtyard. She was to go scout the borders of Albion so as to aid their battle plan. She was stubborn enough to force her father, King Rivalz to let her go alone.

"Euphus, I can hear you in the bushes." She carried on with her task. Said boy stepped out of the bushes.

"As sharp as ever, my dear." He took her and kissed it.

"You know I don`t conform by those old laws." She went on to pet her steed while purposely ignoring the young man.

"That is true. You are the only female knight in the entire realm and it`s most fierce. But that still doesn`t put my mind at ease." The princess rolled her eyes.

"You talk as if I am but a doll" the anger was evident in her voice.

Chuckling, he ran his hand in her tresses. "I didn`t mean to insult, but is it wrong to worry for your loved one?" she let herself into his touch but quickly pulled away.

"Well, I have to leave. My schedule may be thrown in disarray if I remain here and our only hope for victory may be lost."

Euphus was surprised at first but nodded in understanding. Silently, she mounted her horse, said her farewells and rode into the rising sun.

" _Heavenly powers hear my call_!" she cast the demon spell for the umpteenth time on the golems which came after her, but each time they broke through. Once again she was being pursued on Lancelot, her steed.

'None of my light spells are working and weapons are useless, unless…' she then started to ride around in them circles. This made the slow moving beast to lumber around in one spot. Finally, she saw her much needed opening and she wiggled out from their pursuit. She made her way to the nearby cliff in haste.

'Here it goes' she took a deep breath to calm her nerves. " _Dominions heed this call to thee, SEAL_ " indeed the golems were stuck in the sealing area, thus lifting up her bow with 5 arrows she aimed at them  
" _Grant me thy strength, Oh principalities_!" she released her bow and all of them hit their intended targets, right in the chest where the heart was. They writhed and pounded the earth due to their loss of magic. But instead of dark magic dissipating from them, she noticed intense light magic flooding the area.

" _Highest of the high, great Seraphims. Look down on this poor servant and deliver him from all harm'_ a baritone voice filled the clouds as the said light gathered around in the sky and concentrated on the princess.

'No way! That is highest order of magic cast by the direct disciples! How could such a foul-' the rest of her thoughts were cut off as she fell to the ground unconscious.

A while later, the great gates opened to reveal a tall young man. He walked up to her and crouched to the ground to examine her pulse. "You indeed are a strange one." He muttered as he lifted her up and took her through the gates of Albion.

The next thing Suzaku knew was getting up with her head spinning due to the hit. She tried to remember what happened. Right, she was struck by a beam of light from the most powerful spell known to man and currently got up from her bed-

Wait, when did she reach the castle? She got up with a start but winced in pain. Still, she noticed that she was occupying a huge bed with a lavish canopy on top. The bedroom she was in, was much grander than the one`s back home-

"It seems you have finally woken up" a deep baritone was heard from the doorway. She whipped her head up, only to feel a surge of pain. Immediately, the said person was by her side.

"Don`t move. You have lost a lot of your energy." And then went on to cast a healing spell on her. As he did this, she took the liberty to study her host, a man in his late early twenties. He was amongst the most handsome she had ever seen, if not the most athletic looking. He had a slender build, raven black hair and sharp features. His most distinguishing feature however, were his amethyst eyes.

"I may have cast the spell, but it will recover in about 2 days." He said coldly, devoid of the concern he had shown and walked away.

"Who are you?" she asked carefully. The boy stopped in his tracks and spun around, giving her a cold smirk.

"I am the sole inhabitant of Albion, Zero" he said with demented flourish.

Immediately, two long swords were thrust through him by the girl who had inhuman speed. Her eyes held only pure hatred as she twisted a sword in his heart. Her injuries notwithstanding.

"This is for all the suffering you have brought down on us." The tone was more frigid than his own.

The second one was fully thrust through his abdomen

"A demon like you has no right to walk this noble planet.

Finally, she took one of them out and slit his throat as the corpse fell to the ground.

"A mistake like you should be erased of these pure lands." She stood up and cleaned her swords. She heaved and panted from the exhaustion of her activity and the deed she had done. She rested her back against the wall for support. At last, they would be free from all this madness. But first, she had to get out as quietly as possible. It wasn`t the time to celebrate. The master may be dead, but the minions may be about. Just as she was about to leave, she heard somebody trying to stand up. The scene that played out before her left her cold with fear.

Zero stood up from the bloody pool of his blood with an unreadable expression on his face. He smoothed down his garments and wiped the blood from his clothes. When he seemed to be more presentable, his gaze seemed to penetrate her body.

"At least be original with your insults. They are meant to hurt a person`s conscience." He took a stride towards the girl. Suzaku willed herself to run away but she remained rooted in her place. Of course, it was his doing that she couldn`t move any limb. He cupped her cheeks gently and wiped of the blood present there.

"Since I have heard this over the years, I shall not take offence to it. However, you shall be confined in this room until I find further use for you."

She gritted her teeth at the cold voice that spoke to her and felt herself float back to bed of the traitor. She tried to lash out against her invisible bonds but they remained firmly on her.

"How can you be so heartless?" she spat out to the retreating figure.

He stopped his advance but didn`t turn to face her, "For that is the cause of all weakness." he said quietly and left the warrior princess thunderstruck at that.

This went on 3 days. Every time she woke up from bed, Zero would release her from the bindings and give her a bowl of soup which she refused to drink. (Who knows what might be put in it?). Stone faced, he would leave it by her bedside, sit in the armchair in the room waiting for her to drink it. The scene would remain like this for about 2 hours and then the bindings would be back and she would be knocked out cold, waiting to be awoken again.

* * *

During the same time, back in the castle of Weinberg the council of the kingdoms were held. Their Majesties Gino and Rivalz were the joint chair to the forces with Euphus sitting to their right.

"Princess Suzaku has yet to return from her mission, your highnesses." One of the army general stated. From there, the discussion went back and forth, from strategic forts to supplies to troop morale. The city of Albion was day`s ride from where they were. It was entirely possible the princess could have wanted to rest a while before heading back. Either way, there were causes of concern as she wasn`t the type to rest until the job was done.

"Surprisingly, the masses have got themselves into a panic on this matter, Lord Weinberg." Rivalz turned to face the king.

"We will have to keep this under wraps for a while as the issue is a sensitive one, my lord." Gino then turned to the prince seated among them on the table.

"Take two entire regiments of the best soldiers you can find. If she doesn`t return in 4 days' time, we march out to bring down Albion by force."

The Prince bowed graciously before leaving the chambers, a determined look gracing his visage. The girl whom he admired and loved was in danger. She was most possibly facing the greatest foe she had ever faced and maybe taken. He tried to stop such thoughts from cropping up but to no use. Finally, he resolved to save her from this unknown beast even if it was the last thing he did.

* * *

Suzaku slowly regained her consciousness once more and tried to familiarize herself once again with her prison. Her hands came up to rub the sleep from her eyes….. Wait….Her hands were free to move? This would never happen unless it was from Zero`s will itself. Silently, she tested out all her limps for movements and indeed, the bonds that held her were not there. Silently studying her surroundings, she summoned her swords which were placed in the far edge of the room and got on her feet to leave the room. It was a bit painful to move around due to the sedation spells and prolonged sleep on the bed as well as lack of food.

'That monster has probably gone slack to let the enemy free in such a way.'

She thought grimly as she silently walked up to the door. Her progress was halted when she heard some rustling sounds which immediately made her draw her weapons. It came from over the armchair near the fire place. Like a ghost, she walked over to investigate.

The sight she saw was both pitiful yet terrifying. For on that chair, Zero lay asleep. His head resting on one of his arms while the book was still in his other hand. He almost seemed….. Peaceful and innocent, completely untainted by the world.

'Get a grip, he is the cause for all the misery faced by us.' She scolded herself and filled her being with righteous anger. How could she have ever felt sympathy for the butler of the devil? This could have been one of his mind games for which he was worshipped among the dark cults.

She raked her mind for methods to defeat him. He used the highest forms of light magic, thus making him near invisible. But if she disabled him long enough, she could seal him forever in the place. True, she too would be with him, but it would be a small sacrifice for the greater good.

She proceeded to strangulate him to buy a little time as she gambled that he would be too surprised to react. However, no sooner she came in contact with him his eyes shot opened and he seemed terrified.

"Stand back!" he screamed, but by then it was too late. Suzaku was already transported to another dimension which was a white void. Various pictures were seen suspending in mid-air. She somehow managed to float to a particular one which seemed to be like a family portrait. She recognized the two adults as King James and his queen, the fairest king and queen to ever set foot on the earth but failed to realize who the little boy was even though he looked familiar. As on instinct, she touched the picture resulting in others swarming around her and playing out different things in her mind. She screamed at the shear agony of all these random things filling her mind but ceased doing so when they all played out coherently. These were memories, sweet memories of Zero…no, Prince Lelouch. She didn`t know how she knew that….. she just knew. All the happy times he shared with all subjects and family, they extreme training he undertook to protect his land with his band of friends, the silent charity he performed, the kids whose lives he touched, the siblings whom he loved more than life…..

….. And in the end, only tragedy hit the boy of 12 years of age.

She was transported back to her room where she saw the little prince who had grown up so wonderfully, in grace and beauty quiver like a little child who had lost all that he knew…

"Prince Lelouch…" She raised her hand to comfort the grief stricken teen.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!" he roared. His eyes filled with the first emotion she ever saw in them…

….pure anger for seeing something so personal.

Immediately, incredibly bright light filled the room and Suzaku was back in her bed. Zero had vanished from her room taking the meal he had prepared for her while adding additional binds to her. As if to add to her woes, she was induced back into a long, torturous and painful sleep.

She was awakened from her slumber once again after an indescribable amount of time by her tormentor. There he was, standing next to her with a bowl full of porridge. But this time instead of setting it on the table and retiring back to the armchair, she felt herself feel light and assume the seating posture as the pillows positioned themselves for her to rest easy. He proceeded to sit next to her, which earned some weakened struggles to move away from him.

"Sit still." It was said with a lot of awkwardness. He did not seem to know what face he should be making. Wordlessly, she obeyed the command. He made himself as comfortable as possible (which wasn`t much at all) next to her and started feeding the brunette.

"Eat up." He said, awkwardness still there but much reduced. "A lot of your energy has gone out. You need to recover from it."

The girl fixed her gaze at the boy whose face looked….. So sorrowful. She saw the hollowness and longing in those eyes, the slight downward curve his lips which seemed out of place yet befitting him. She imagined his face lit up by one of the more positive emotions as they proceed along their curious task.

"Is there something on my face?"

She immediately noticed he was staring intently at her (his face still couldn`t decide which emotion or expression to showcase) and quickly averted her gaze. The feeding session continued in silence with the dark villain wiping up her mouth after he was done. It was done with so much care that she wondered how much of a living contradiction Zero…. No, Lelouch was.

"Um… thanks….?" She said to the figure as he kept the bowl aside and was walking to 'his armchair'.

"You may call me Lelouch, princess. There is no point of hiding anymore after what has happened." He did not turn to face her as he ran through the book shelf for a good read.

"Just call me Suzaku, it is the least I can do." At the back of her mind, she still didn`t understand why she was trying to be friendly with him. Was it out of sympathy? Either way, 'Lelouch' chose not to answer it.

"How long have you been here?" she tried to break the silence though she was not sure she asked the right question. Still, she wanted to start things anew with the boy after 'now' knowing what he had been through.

'Zero' didn`t answer it immediately. He back still facing her, he kept his book on the table and got up from his haunt. He silently made his way to the windows and saw the dark remains of a once-lively city.

"The curse makes sure that the perception of time varies randomly." He finally sighed out "Apparently, some of that witch`s 'knowledge' has passed down to me. I couldn`t possibly know how long I have been here."

He finally turned to face her. "What year is it?"

"Huh?" what a smart reply.

The raven head rolled his eyes "I asked, the date before you came here was?"

"10th July 1173 atb." Hesitantly she let out.

His eyes widened a little but noticeable bit on hearing what she had to say and then came the look of acceptance of the fact.

"And here I counted around 12 years since that day." He whispered out.

"How long have you been here?" she asked again, clutching the sheets tightly in her fists.

A wry smile donned his features "from the date you told me, it has been around 500 years. Indeed, time moves differently here."

The fact registered pretty heavily for Suzaku and not in a good way. She was sent on a mission to finish of the demon which tormented these lands only to know him better, but at what cost. Half of the continent must have been vanquished while she was in here. Maybe 40 years had passed, he did say the time relation was flexible. That meant all those counting on her were gone, her kingdom may have been in shambles… and….and….

Euphus…. Her sweet, goofy to be husband….

The weight of emotions were too much for her and suddenly, she felt an excruciating pain coursing through her body. It wanted to rip her apart and tear her soul to shambles. The scream could not be suppressed (not that she could) and she writhed on the blankets to try an ease the pain…

A pair of firm hands held her shoulders down and try to calm her down. When it didn`t work, a gentle feather-like touch of his hand was felt on her forehead and him saying something in an impossibly sweet and tender voice.

" _Soft as the voice of a cherub,_ _breathing a lesson unheard…"_

It couldn`t be…among the great three light spells ever to exist? They were of divine origin and were made known to only a select few. Then how did he…?

 _"…Hope with a gentle persuasion,_ _Whispers her comforting word…"_

The pain however was receding from her as she felt a warm fire burn within her, dispelling all the illness and ailments tormenting her. It felt nice and safe.

 _"…Wait till the darkness is over,_ _Wait till the tempest is done,_ _Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,_ _after the shower is gone."_

The magic did perform exactly what was written and said in legends. All negative thoughts, emotions… none of it remained and in their place was happiness, contentment and safety. As she fell back into a peaceful slumber, she faintly registered the bed sheets being pulled over her and her tresses being gently pushed to the side with affection she had never felt.

Lelouch was surprised by his own actions and automatic reflexes towards the girl. He ought not to feel anything anymore, he had sworn it so as to protect the world from himself. Yet, deep down he yearned to have another human by his side. Just be with him, and keep him company. Suzaku seemed to take that role for him despite her animosity…

…maybe that`s why he remembered the _Song of the Sacred Cherubs_ in that instant of her pain as he had done so often in the past with his family and subjects.

Whatever it was, his cold heart could still feel and it was melting fast. All thanks to that brunette.

And it is for her, he will have to harden it again. For now, being acquaintances was fine.

* * *

The skies over Albion had turned darker and started giving out an ominous glow for a brief interval of time, signaling a new change in the curse.

' _May the flow of time speed up within thy gates to that of this world'_

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Gino asked his son who was facing him directly. He came to see him late at night on the day the council meeting was held. The veteran warrior was looking into the young champion`s eyes to see if any hesitation lay hidden there. He found none.

"I am, father. It may be our last and only chance to defeat him."

The king turned his back to face the window. The moon was gently illuminating his kingdom with its light. Just beyond his and King Rivalz`s boundaries, kingdom after kingdom where engulfed by the storm spewing out from Albion.

"Very well." The king conceded "Train the troops the basic sealing magic, it will take around a week to train them. Take 2000 wizards with you. I presume you will be the caster?"

"Yes. Apparently, I am the only one besides Suzaku to do it."

"You have my blessings. Return victorious for a wedding banquet." The old king smiled at his son in a moment of rare banter which somehow fitted in the atmosphere.

* * *

2 days had passed since the incident back at Albion. The skies seemed less overcast than usual as Suzaku walked down the palace. Her body still hurt a lot, but it had to be exercised as Lelouch put it. It seemed in a fit of anger, he accidently cast truly forbidden dark magic that caused mental as well as physical harm to the person. Had he not countered it with the ' _Song of the Sacred Cherubs_ ', she would either have been dead or remain in a vegetative state for life.

Note to self, never anger Zero…

… No, Lelouch. A smile tugged the corners of her face as she walked down the once grand corridors of the palace. Ever since the then, he seemed to be a lot friendlier… but in his own guarded way. Sure, he would still say 'he didn`t know what use she was to him' but deep down his entire den-amour had changed a little boy who she saw in those visions.

Proof of that was of his invitation to come to the courtyard today.

He didn`t tell her in person. She got up from her normal sleep and saw a note written in excellent handwriting and language telling her so. He was also kind enough to lend her an evening gown. (It was nearly noon, actually and why did he keep such clothes?). If she didn`t know any better, she would have thought of him to be of the romantic type.

She guided herself to the courtyard garden where she was forced to close her eyes due to the startling light. On overcoming her initial shock, she started to take in the beauty of this place. The size of the area was quite small but was exquisitely maintained with a fountain crystal clear water, lush greenery, bright sunlight….

Wait a minute, isn`t she in the middle of Albion…?

"You came." The deep baritone sounded nervous yet relieved.

She turned about to see the breathtaking sight of Prince Lelouch. He wore a simple black dress shirt with white inlay and black pants. The perfect picture of handsomeness and he even managed to school his face into a more appropriate smile.

They spent their time wandering about the little haven with him periodically stopping at certain plants to tell some fascinating fact or secret story behind each of them. Suzaku heard all of them in rapt interest. The prince never rambled on, he spoke in short, precise sentences with a hint of fondness in his tone. Sometimes, she would also voice her thoughts. Otherwise, they would comfortably walk around the gardens in comfortable silence

"How is this the only place illuminated so brightly?" she asked the figure as he tended to some roses. He didn`t look back.

"I… I don`t know." He finally said in a slightly shaky voice. "But I am grateful for it. It seems that a small respite was granted to me for my 'attempt' to right the wrong." The sadness now seeped back in "it is here I would play with my dear siblings, where our family would spend every evening without fail, where my friends would come to celebrate silly festivals…." He started to trail off.

He stood up from his place, with the brunette only looking over at him. The raven head inhaled a deep breath. "This is the only place left on earth where I feel human again."

He felt his light squeeze to his hand which startled him out of his morbid mood and he met this same shimmering emerald eyes that seemed to be a sea of emotion.

"Maybe I can make you feel human a bit longer by staying like this for a while. My to-be-husband would hold my hand like this whenever I felt down or sad."

A sad smile graced the handsome face as he squeezed it back with a reassuring grip.

"Say, can I be your friend?" she asked out of the blue. This stunned him even further. Seriously, how many thought changes goes in her mind.

"You sure are a queer one. You would risk it despite all else?"

"Well, from what I saw I have to love you back for the curse to befall on me. As it stands we mutually respect each other for what we went through. So…"

Indeed she was a special one "Fine… it…would be nice… after such a long time."

* * *

For the tenth time, Euphus fell back down on the floor trying to cast the Spear of the 3 archangels. Legend has it that the before the disgrace of man when he lived in co-existence among celestial beings, 3 spells were taught to the first parents. These were the _Song of the Sacred Cherubs, the Spear of the 3 Archangels_ and _the Judgment of the Seraphs_. These were gifts to those pure of heart and only a handful of men had learned it over the eras.

"My lord, please don` t push yourself too far." Margrave Gottwald beseeched his liege as he helped up the now ragged man.

"I…. can`t give…. Up…. Suzaku…" he stutter was stopped when the elder knight grabbed him by his shoulder and faced him.

"Get a grip of yourself, prince. Princess Suzaku would be displeased to know that you are motivated for selfish desire. Remember all the people counting on you. Don`t let them down by being so childish."

Understanding the words his knight had uttered, he took his hand and retired back to his room. It was true, currently he was motivated by his anger and worry. That as what may have been holding him back from doing his best. As he laid back in bed he thought of all the things his people faced over the generations and strengthened his resolve.

His right hand let out a faint glow of a still formed insignia.

"What are all those insignias on your arm?" Suzaku took his hand to examine it closely. They had just finished eating dinner in her chambers and were talking about their lives, families, comparing times then and now…

"These symbolize my ability to cast the true light spells." He shrugged it off simply. When he turned back to see what was the cause of her silence he was met with eyes as big as saucers and jaws dropped open.

"What? Why are you so surprised?"

"How did you learn to cast them? Not even Merlin was said to have been able to have the knowledge of all 3 at once. Only the disciples are known to possess it along with the 'White king'." she finally managed to get her voice back.

He chuckled at her simple minded actions "It is the most natural of magic actually." He stroked the insignias so that they glowed a bit more brightly. "The most surprising part is that no one taught nor my father. It is not magic that can be taught to a person. They are all manifestations of one`s innermost and pure wishes." He turned to face the girl, a happy smile on it. "When Nunnally and Rolo were seriously ill. All the doctors had said they would breathe their last. Father was out of the kingdom and thus, couldn`t cure them. Mother and I stood by their bed side. She comforted them in their agony while I was crying for anyone or anything to save them. It was then when something inside of me clicked. My heart felt warm and my mind was clear. At that moment, I knew everything and yet nothing. When I came back to my senses, the disease had left them. Mother of course was overjoyed about it. It was later she explained to me what had happened. I of course was dumbfounded, but she told me 'the weak are the strongest for they are always protected. Be their protector when the time is right.' It was with that in mind, I closed and sealed Albion."

"I cannot believe that someone like you had to go through all that torture." She whispered out with empathetic tears streaming down her face. A silken cloth wiped them away and tidied up her face.

"Now, now… I am not all that wonderful you know. I must have done something mischievous for me to deserve this." he tried to make light of the situation but received a swat on his head.

"You are such an idiot. How can you laugh at all that has happened?" the strength in her voice had returned.

He paused at that and withdrew from her "After all the tragedies that have struck the land being attributed to me, all the people who died due to the curse which I didn`t understand then, do you expect me to remain like a normal person?"

How many times would he keep shutting himself away? Couldn`t he be like any other person who could? Dealing with him was like walking on ice, there was certainly a limit before you would be enveloped in the cold dark ravine of his being….

….Maybe she should really start looking at things from his perspective. But such was the power of brain washing and constant seeking for something to blame…

"Would you like to know a secret my father told me?" that was really random given what they were talking about. Nevertheless, she nodded him to continue.

"The three great light spells are all connected to each other. Also, we only cast one half of the spell. It is said when the spear of the 3 archangels is cast, the judgment of the seraphs is done before it strikes. Judging the person, the council holy archangels will then carry on the attack. If they find it is wrongly done, the cherubs along with the archangels will see that soul`s last true wish is granted and honored. The entirety of this will only happen when the 2nd stanza will be recited. But, it has long been forgotten in the sands of time and was only fully known by the disciples."

He stood up from where he was seated on the bed and turned back to face her. "I don't even know why I told you that." He ran his hand through his hair "maybe I am becoming like an old man."

"You are 520 years old." The brunette pointed out with a giggle. Suddenly, the tension in the room disappeared.

"Don`t remind me…" Lelouch huffed as he pulled on the blankets on her. She quietly settled into the plush bed and was about to close her eyes when she felt a gentle kiss being planted on her head. They shot wide open terrified at what happened and searched around to find the most gentle look ever donned on a face, with only eyes that seemed to be in some distant, happy land.

"Sweet dreams, princess. May the angels be thy guide."

He repeated the same only to kiss in the air on the other side of the bed.

"Stay strong, brave prince. The world is waiting to greet you along with your sister tomorrow once more."

Quietly, he left the room with the expression still donning his face. As she slept that night, Suzaku kept on repeating the heart wrenching scene she saw before and how those lips felt on her head.

* * *

"For his majesty the prince`s sake, I beseech you to send at least 5000 well trained soldiers well versed in magic to assist him. It is impossible for any living person to cast both spells at once." The head of the magic society advised Gino. He later found that though the boy made exponential progress, at his current level, he could only stun the demon and that alone took all of his strength. This left them

"Very well, gather the people who you would trust with such magic. They should be here in 2 days' time.

As the chairman took his leave, the king silently clung to his prayer beads as he prayed that the outcome be the one they always hoped for.

"Rolo, how much longer must big brother continue to suffer?" an 8 year old appearing chestnut haired girl asked her twin brother. They were walking around the castle and also were witness to their big brother`s. "I can`t stand to see him phase off like that any longer."

"Don`t worry, Nunnally. Our brother is strong. He will get his due rest soon." The chestnut haired boy tried to console his sister.

"At what cost?" her violet eyes flashed with sadness and pain. "The curse has consumed most of his soul over time and has actually turned him into a demon. The only thing which has prevented him from going berserk is our continuous presence which comforts him and makes him yearn to be human."

"…I think we aren`t the only ones to be with him anymore." A smile played on both of their angelic lips.

"You are right. I hope he finds what he has deserved all this time."

* * *

Another wall of the citadel of Albion was brought down with a mighty cloud of smoke and dust. Behind it, the raven head who did the act had a crazed and angered look firmly registered on his features. The settling of the dust made it an even more intimidating scene. The underlying reason however, was the sadness that drove his wrath, mostly towards himself.

Suzaku was gone….

….She was alive and still lying in what appeared to be a peaceful slumber in his dear sibling`s room. His only haven with the only human he currently felt safe with.

How could he have been so naïve to think that it was okay to let his emotions go lose just a bit? Since when did he forget that anyone who opens themselves to him were always putting their lives at risk? The fact she was in this condition could mean a torture for eternity for him, as a symbol of his folly.

The blood in his veins darkened. Slowly, his appearance was growing larger and more sinister. He needed to let lose all of this great power that he felt surging through him. He needed to get the load of losing a pitiful, fragile girl of his chest. Maybe he should venture out of Albion after all. A wicked smile drew itself on his face as he moved closer to the main gates.

" _Don`t leave."_ a gentle voice rang through his being. It didn`t stop him immediately but slowed him down. A frown now completing his giant- like appearance.

" _Don`t leave the girl back."_ It continued _"Nothing will be achieved if you walk past those gates. Only more sadness will be wrought."_

He started calming down as the scenes from when he lost his family and people came back to his mind. The transformation started to reverse and he shrank back to his original size. Tears streamed down his face as he tried to come in terms with what he had become.

"What am I to do?" he screamed back "I am a monster who can only bring forth destruction. Why should I remain back here?" he had never cried like this in centuries for he thought his feelings and 'human' side were dead. It was oddly comforting for him that he was reduced to this state.

" _Worry not for the dead as for the living. Enter back into the palace and look after the girl."_ The place felt a bit lighter as he felt the presence which spoke to him, leave his company.

Rapid footsteps would have been heard by the bystanders as the black prince raced down back to 'their' abode.

A radiant column of light descended and surrounded the dragon as it tried to escape from the over surging destructive power thrown it`s way. Unfortunately, it was to no avail as the foul beast which ran a rampage through half the city let out an agonized cry and was no more. As the dust cleared away, Euphus was seen, standing there with torn clothes and aching arms. It had been just 5 days since he promised his father to avenge and rid them of Albion. The dragon appeared as he tried to perfect the spell and when he had felt the overwhelming urge to help, everything fell in place and the next thing he knew, the dragon was no more.

The townspeople cheered at the feat their young champion had accomplished. Weary from his activity, he was assisted back to the palace along with an ecstatic crowd and was shown to the royal physicians.

Victory may actually be within their grasp.

As Lelouch brushed the strands of curly brown hair back into its place on that beautiful face, he had a strange contentment of being alive yet knowing he didn`t have much time. It almost felt like the time when he was the crown prince. Love and be loved, friend and befriend, defend and be defended. After a long time, he had come to understand that he had a reason to live. He had abandoned it a long time ago, but only he could truly lift of the curse of Albion. If for nothing else, than it would at least grant rest to the souls of his people and ensure this girl`s safety.

* * *

The great army had marched unto the once lush plains which contained the grand city on the 7th day of the princess`s disappearance. Troop came from the entire continent, from the mighty Stadfald's, to the eccentric armor forging Asplund`s and Croomy`s, to the fierce Malcal`s. the troops numbered in hundred thousand, all having some magic knowledge with them. All of them rallied under the banner of the Weinberg Empire and led on by their champion, Euphus Weinberg.

As they marched before the tattered gates of the great city, the skies above them started to roar in action and vortex around the castle top. The army along with its vanguard and general stayed still, not letting their guard down as the clouds over them converged towards a focal point just before them and then rained down ominous red light down on the land ahead of them. The horses and elephants started to get of control.

"Cast the calming spell." Kallen, leader of the Stadfald`s ordered the field as they sized up to face their opponents who were standing before them. They were unlike anything that had walked on this earth. They had no eyes, stood higher than the elephants from the east. The ground shook at the sheer power of their shrill cries. They took a wiff of the air and directed themselves towards the army. Letting out another horror inducing cry, they charged on them.

"Hold the line." Euphus calmed his men as he pulled revealed the sigil which had fully formed on the back of his hand. It shone brightly and restored the soldiers' faith in their generals. It was like in the legends of old where the 'Great king' exposed his hand to repel the giants as they crossed the seas to plunder and loot their lands and people.

" _Time and nature bow before thee. Oh ye gate keepers of paradise, separate the grain from the chaff!"_

At once, the foul beasts stooped dead in their tracks. They all writhed and howled in agony and pain as they disintegrated at every syllable uttered before their target. After a while, they were reduced into a pile of dust.

The army`s jubilations were cut short when a maniacal, high pitched laughter rang through the skies.

"Insolent fools. Do you really think you can defeat me? With something a paltry as that?" the voice had a good deal of venom in it.

"Show yourself before us, oh mighty one. We shall test thy claims with justice." Euphus urged his horse forward so as to give a once over of his adversary. He however was once again met with laughter.

"Oh naïve child, I have long since physically existed in this realm, but my presence can and will not be destroyed by the likes of you." As she spoke, an army, parallel and identical to their own appeared out of the black smog which was slowly engulfing them. Soon Euphus too was surrounded by the fog. As he tried to steady his horse, he noticed someone walking towards him. It revealed to be him alone, having same features, body structure… everything was him… and yet it wasn`t him. Deep in his eyes, cruelty and darkness could be seen which unnerved battle hardened prince even further.

"The real enemy is the one that lies within." The voice went on to explain as he and 'his twin' adopted the same battle stance. "Standing in front each of you is… 'You' of course!" the laughter once again was heard, but the real venom bite was now. "He is the dark part which you have suppressed. The savage, the murderer, the sadist as well as all your fears and insecurities. Are you willing to cut yourself down?"

"I have taken this kingdom as my own!" the sudden change of tone to full hysteria came as a shock to him as well as others "And I will not part with it that easily!"

As the presence seemed to recede away from them, Euphus tightened the grip on his sword. This was really going to be a long day….

Lelouch walked over to the window to see a fog screen surrounding the castle. He had fallen asleep while feeding the young girl in her comatose state. He tried all the spells he could muster, but none revived her. During this time, a barrier had been broken as he felt the jolt. Using the dark magic of 'all see' he managed to see the cause of the breach.

The battle was raging forth beyond these walls…

Lelouch closed his eyes, taking a few minutes for himself. When they opened, his features resumed that of his former days. Kind, gentle, confident and filled with a deep sense of hope. He turned back to the bed where he tenderly brushed of the curly bangs into place, like he did so often this week. When he had done that, a tender kiss was placed on her beautiful tanned forehead.

"You indeed were a queer one." He caressed her cheeks with such love.

"Someone else already holds your heart. But given a chance, I would do everything in my power to win it and protect you just like I tried to do for my kingdom."

He got up for what would be his last time and cast the protection spell which he again thought he had long forgotten over her.

" _Till he who holds no malice and who holds favor in her heart not come by, may nothing move through these gates so as to harm her life."_

An opaque, crystal layered dome wrapped around her bed and then blended with the surroundings so as to render them invisible. He was tempted to put his hand through the barrier just to confirm….

…. The gloved hand retracted back slowly and Zero quietly intended to leave the room. He had to face this enemy head on and maybe…. Just maybe put an end to the curse which haunted him over the centuries.

He couldn`t help but spare one last glance towards her sleeping form and smiled. All this change within him was due to her and the time they spent together was indeed special.

As he just walked out of the room, he swore he saw his siblings smiling faces directed towards him and the sleeping princess.

This was it, the moment of truth they all had been waiting for. As they had been fighting with themselves, the gates of the accursed city were opened once again for the master, Zero. No sooner did the demon walk past the gates, the clouds and fog retreated back into sudden nothingness as did the 'evil' army on a mere clap from the demon. Indeed, he commanded all the evil they faced and judging from what the voice said earlier, he indeed must be Satan incarnate! As the demon made his way towards them, he gestured to his troops to silently cast the sealing spell around the area as he went up to meet with him half way. It was risky for there was a huge possibility of the collective casting having no effect on their enemy. He however, decided to take the gamble and go on. Besides, there wasn`t any more need for distractions.

It was working, Zero was tiring out with each step he took. Granted the spell was not powerful alone, but with a combined strength of around 10,000 with a common goal it was bound to be able to do miracles.

The black demon collapsed when he was around a 100 steps away from the army and still attempted to crawl towards them, striking fear in all those who saw the scene. It was horrifying to see that he could still overcome their combined magic force to keep going. Out of the corner of his eye, Euphus knew it was time to take the ultimate gamble.

Quickly dismounting from his horse, the sigil on his right hand glowed more brightly as he drew a magic circle around the exhausted demon who had somehow managed to stand up. The heavens opened up and the circles multiplied around its target.

"THIS IS FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE TO US!"

A column of light now engulfed the circles and a horrifying scream could be heard. Euphus unsheathed his sword as it was necessary to complete the ritual. He ran his right hand over the weapon to enchant it and closed his eyes.

" _7 lights protect all that are under the clouds. Of them, 3 of the great lights are the most favored and just. They are 3 and are 1 at the same time, forming the sword of the most high."_

Having enchanted the sword, he struck it into the ground sending a piercing earthquake and heavenly judgment on the foe.

" _Champions of the universe, heed the cry of these mere soldiers and vanquish and cleanse our lands!"_

The column of light became brighter and more powerful, yet no screams of agony could be heard from the black one. However, those of his sister could be heard with painful clarity. Soon a second light column, more intense than the first surged forth from the skies, engulfing the whole battlefield and blinding one and all. The armies cowered to the ground at the sheer magnitude of the power being rained down on them.

It cleared out after what seemed an eternity, the yelling and curses of the female couldn`t be heard any more. Jeremiah was the first to recover as he got up from his place and staggered forward to examine the situation. When his eyes adjusted to the light of the sun…. wait, Sun light?... But Albion was always darkened by the dark clouds of evil surrounding it. Looking around, he noticed lush green forests which surrounded the magnificent city. The air was cool and fresh and it seemed devoid of the evil it once was home to.

Quickening his steps, he found his prince taking support of his horse to stand back. Miraculously, he didn't even have a single scratch or bruise on him. His armor was intact and the horse was in good health.

"Jeremiah, is it over?" he asked through ragged breaths.

The knight took his charge in his arms and spilled tears which he may have not done before.

"Yes, your majesty. You defeated Zero." He said simply.

"Does that mean, we our finally safe?" tears were coming through the prince`s eyes. The sheer weight of the emotions getting the better of him.

"Buckle up your majesty. You still have to find princess Suzaku." The knight reminded him.

"But…"

"I will take care of the army. Go and find her." He helped the dazed prince back on his charger.

"Go my prince, do the one thing that you need to do."

Euphus got out of his dazed stutter and acknowledged the command. With a bright smile, he sent his horse into a full gallop down towards the now restored city.

His princess was waiting for him…

* * *

Lelouch smiled when he felt the curse and that serpent's will lift of from his body. Seizing his chance cast his own 'spear of the 3 archangel`s' so as to annihilate her soul once and for all. It worked, seeing the soul disappear into nothingness and he to felt his own body being torn apart. He really wished he could go back and look after Suzaku and see her smile once more. But there was nothing he could do of that. All he could do however, was smile as he remembered every happy memory old and new, flash before him and console him in his hour of loneliness.

" _If in the dusk of the twilight dimmed be the region afar_ _._ _Will not the deepening darkness writing the glittering star"_

"You Oh child pure of heart, you who cried in torment and sorrow. Thou who the curse art bore. To whom everyone`s joy and life was of outmost importance. Your prayer has been answered." The voice filled the empty space Lelouch was standing in.

 _"Then when the night is upon us why the heart should sink away,_ _  
_ _When the dark midnight is over watch for the breaking of day"_

"I have done nothing commendable to warrant this." Tears streamed down his face. He couldn`t believe that heaven would complete the pact just to save him from the damnation he deserved.

"Yet thou art taken all the evil on yourself and sacrificed your life with no second thought to vanquish it. You have been gravely wronged and have yet to have lived. Thus you will live your life once again. The past is done and cannot be changed, but you can make a future. Thus, under the will of all the denizens in heaven, LIVE! If not for us than by the divine wish of them."

He turned back and saw his family, his friends, his entire kingdom present there to bid him of. There was his childhood buddies Rick, Charles… they were commoners he had met while travelling within his kingdom…. And Kenneth, his confidant and knight to be… and his teachers… and… and… his mother, father…Nunnally… Rolo…

He nearly collapsed to the ground only to be caught by his family who hugged him ever so tightly while he cried and apologized and cried again.

"Hush… my son, don`t ask for forgiveness when nothing wrong was done." His father soothed him

"But…"

"You have long fought the evil and have suffered much. Don`t ever think we were angry or hated you." He snuggled closer into his mother`s embrace.

"We missed you so much brother."

"We couldn`t stand by, so we came to help ease your burden." The twins said with tears of happiness.

" _Whispering hope! Oh how gentle thy voice!..."_

"I would and always say this, no matter where I am. I could not ask for a better son, a nobler heir than you." James righted his boy and wiped out the tears in his eyes.

"We will always be with you Lelouch." Kenneth swung his arm around him. He was 2 years his elder.

"Till the end of your days." Rick ruffled his hair. The 4 friends were given a short moment of reunion and then went back where the ecstatic crowd saw him off back to life. Lelouch turned back once more, his charming smile adorning his face.

"Thank you….and…" It conveyed all of his emotions to those who had passed before him. His Father and mother however cut him short.

"This isn`t a goodbye, my son…"

"… It is good luck and wishes of things to come." Kenneth continued.

"No matter where the place…" Nunnally and Rolo smiled at him.

"… or what the circumstances…"

"…. We will always be there to help you."

The crowds roared forth along with the heavenly denizens as he started his journey back to life.

"… _. Now, in my heart. Turned my sorrow to joy!"_

* * *

It was a bright day in Pendragon as the court was lined up for the knighting ceremony for the first family. Euphus was seated onto the throne along with his wife Suzaku. Revered for their deeds of lifting the curse of Albion from the continent, they were loved and immortalized for the power they wielded together. But their knight-to-be to their family was even more special.

Soon, the grand doors opened and a young man of 25 walked down the aisle in crisp steps. He was wearing the white, ceremonial knight suit over his gold bordered black under shirt and wore a pristine white cape with the sigil of his family etched in gold.

'A knight wearing a crown riding his horse in the battlefield.'

Approving murmurs were heard as he walked down.

"…From where did his majesty find him?"

"I heard it was just after the battle of Albion…"

"…he can cast all the 3 great light spells together without a sweat drop!..."

"… Not even Merlin could do that…"

"He may be the greatest knight to ever live…"

Suzaku chose to ignore this as she studied the man. She always felt he seemed familiar to her from when she had first met him on the training grounds. But she couldn`t point out where or when. A feeling of safety and warmth however, would fill her whenever he was by her family. The most powerful knight ever, surpassing the combined strength of her husband and herself, a caring man who was loved by all. It wouldn`t be wrong to say he was the embodiment of their empire. He always seemed to have that force which would hit you if you were an enemy or reassure you. It was like an entire kingdom rallied behind him invisibly.

"I promise to protect your highness with all my heart, mind, soul and strength and will obey every command as my own." He pronounced his oath in outmost humility as he bowed before them.

Euphus and Suzaku held the sword firmly in their grasp and touched his shoulders with it.

"Rise Sir Lelouch Lamperouge, sovereign knight of the realm and keep good thy oath."

Suzaku held her breath at the sight before her. The knight stood back up with all the authority he seemed to hold. The wind from the windows gently brushed his ebony locks around and she found his wonderful amethyst eyes fixed on her with a deep sense of regard, admiration and… something else she couldn`t point out in them. Gently, he took her hand in his and kissed it and did the same for Euphus`s ring.

"I swear, no harm shall befall on your highness`s and your heir for as long as I live."

 _For being near you and protecting your happiness is all that I ever need._

* * *

 **It last, I have finished this little story. Sorry for the delays during December. I had my semesters to take care of.**

 **A big thank you to every one of you who has reviewed, liked, followed or even read this story. It has a special place in my heart and I saw it through thanks to your encouragement.**

 **I will be back with more! Please support my current project,** _ **Descent of the King of Knight.**_

 **Thank you once again.**


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